Just another good song that you like to sing along

Today I heard a song on the radio that reminded me on so much. After a few seconds of listening to this song my mind went back to this special English lesson about 10 years ago. I'm not sure how old I was then, but I might have not even been a teenager. So I was back sitting there, greeting my english teacher who was walking right into the room to start the lesson. Every pupil she gave a sheet of paper with a song text written on it. I didn't really understand the meaning of this text thought I knew mostly all of the words. It was a song I had heard so many times on the radio before but didn't know what it was really about. Just another good song on the radio that you like to sing along.

Then my teacher explained us what this song was about. It is a really sad song, and the story behind is even more dolorous. She told us about the situation in Northern Ireland, about the violence & about the misery of those citizens who are suffering from this conflict. So many people died. At that time I didn't really understand why they were fighting. Two parties - catholics versus evangelics. I thought 'What's the matter on having another religious opinion?!'.

I grew older, but this topic didn't let me go. Now I know, it's not really about religion, it is about so much more than that. The hole thing started some hundred years ago when Scots & English people started to settle in the north of Ireland. At this time Ireland was not a divided country. Those evangelic settlers were more privileged than the native catholic Irish population. Also they were industrialized & wealthy whereas most Irish people were poor farmers. 1801 a law was enacted that declared Ireland as a part of the United Kingdom. Ever since then parties were formed which are struggling for an independent Ireland.

Drawings like that can be often seen in Northern Ireland

On 24. April in 1916 - the so called Easter Rising - a party occupied some parts of Dublin & declared Ireland as an independent republic. It took only five days until this violent rebellion was put down by British troops. All the leaders of this rebellion were executed a few weeks after. But as Irish parties & politicians insisted on Ireland as an independent republic the Irish war of independence broke out and lastet from 1919 to 1921. It lead to an indipendent Irish state at which the northern part of Ireland kept a part of the United Kingdom & is still ruled by it as Northern Ireland.

But still today every now and then heavy riots between catholic & evangelist parties occur in which people are hurt or sometimes die, because there are still people who are fighting for Northern Ireland to become a part of Ireland again.

Every time I hear this song it reminds me exactly of this. I can't get this out of my mind. I may had been just a a child, when I learned about this topic, but somehow this song & its story behind is deeply memorized in my mind.  I still have the same feeling when I hear it, like I had back then.

You may have heard this song many times on the radio too, but didn't know about the backstory of it. You should think about it the next time you hear this song. I would be glad if you tell me about your feelings when you are listening to this song.

The song is called 'Zombie' by The Cranberries. Unfortunately because of some availability problems I can only post the youtube link instead of posting the video. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTIGoWkxIQk