"This song's our cry against man's inhumanity to man; and man's inhumanity to child." - Dolores O'Riordan.

After The Cranberries' debut album, people thought they had the band sussed out. The Limerick band were part of the Celtic rock tradition, their shimmering, sorrowful ballads brought to life by Dolores O'Riordan's bell-clear vocals.

Zombie shattered that illusion.

A seething condemnation of the IRA, it was backed by pummelling, distorted guitars while O'Riordan's lilt was contorted into a primal howl: "What's in your head Zombie? Zomb-ie-ey, ay-ey, ay-ey, aooowwwww."

Her pain was real: Zombie was a visceral response to the death of two children in an IRA bombing in the Cheshire town of Warrington.

Three-year-old Johnathan Ball was killed when two bombs hidden in litter bins detonated on a busy shopping street in March 1993. Tim Parry, aged 12, died five days later.

O'Riordan, who was on tour at the time, found herself deeply affected by the tragedy.

"I remember seeing one of the mothers on television, just devastated," she told Vox magazine in 1994.

"I felt so sad for her, that she'd carried him for nine months, been through all the morning sickness, the whole thing and some… prick, some airhead who thought he was making a point, did that."

The singer was particularly offended that terrorists claimed to have carried out these acts in the name of Ireland.

"The IRA are not me. I'm not the IRA," she said. "The Cranberries are not the IRA. My family are not.

"When it says in the song, 'It's not me, it's not my family,' that's what I'm saying. It's not Ireland, it's some idiots living in the past."

Released in September 1994, Zombie went on to become the band's biggest-selling single, reaching number one in Germany, Australia and France; and topping the US alternative rock charts.

O'Riordan's lyrics received some criticism at the time. People called her naive and accused her of taking sides in a conflict she didn't understand.

"I don't care whether it's Protestant or Catholic, I care about the fact that innocent people are being harmed," she told Vox. "That's what provoked me to write the song.

"It was nothing to do with writing a song about it because I'm Irish. You know, I never thought I'd write something like this in a million years. I used to think I'd get into trouble."
Instead, the song became an anthem for innocents trapped by other people's violence.

In the 1990s, O'Riordan would regularly dedicate it to the citizens of Bosnia and Rwanda; and her message applies equally to recent attacks in Manchester, Paris and Egypt, to name just three.

"It doesn't name terrorist groups or organisations," she told the NME in 1994. "It doesn't take sides. It's a very human song.

"To me, the whole thing [terrorism] is very confused. If these adults have a problem with these other adults well then, go and fight them. Have a bit of balls about it at least, you know?"