The IRA staged two bombing attacks in Warrington, England in 1993. The Cranberries wrote Zombie about the second attack which injured 54 and killed two children.
The song suggests that the fighting had been going on for so long that the response (more fighting) was automatic - the instincts of a zombie. It's the Cranberries' one political statement, and I'm grateful they made it.
On July 28th, 2005, the IRA announced an end to its armed campaign, promising to work to achieve its aims using "purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means". And I'm grateful for that too.
