Editing Protest song (section)

=== Ireland ===

==== Irish rebel songs ====
[[File:Sinéad_O’Connor_(cropped).jpg|thumb|right|[[Sinead O'Connor]] is known for her political songs, including "The Foggy Dew", reflecting Irish rebel music themes.]]

[[Irish rebel music]] is a subgenre of Irish folk music, played on typically Irish instruments (such as the [[Fiddle]], [[tin whistle]], [[Uilleann pipes]], [[accordion]], [[bodhrán]] etc.) and acoustic guitars. The lyrics deal with the fight for Irish independence, people who were involved in liberation movements, the persecution and violence during [[The Troubles|Northern Ireland's Troubles]] and the history of Ireland's numerous rebellions.

Among the many examples of the genre, some of the most famous are "[[A Nation Once Again]]", "[[Come out Ye Black and Tans]]", "Erin go Bragh",<ref>{{cite web|title=Erin-Go-Bragh|url=http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiERNGOBRA;ttERNGOBRA.html|access-date=October 3, 2007}}</ref> "[[The Fields of Athenry]]", "[[The Men Behind the Wire]]" and the Republic of Ireland's national anthem "[[Amhrán na bhFiann]]" ("The Soldier's Song"). Music of this genre has often courted controversy, and some of the more outwardly anti-British songs have been effectively banned from the airwaves in both England and the Republic of Ireland.

[[Paul McCartney]] also made a contribution to the genre with his 1972 single "[[Give Ireland Back to the Irish]]", which he wrote as a reaction to [[Bloody Sunday (1972)|Bloody Sunday]] in Northern Ireland on January 30, 1972. The song also faced an all-out ban in the UK, and has never been re-released or appeared on any Paul McCartney or [[Wings (band)|Wings]] best-ofs. The same year McCartney's former colleague [[John Lennon]] released two protest songs concerning the hardships of war-torn Northern Ireland: "[[Some Time in New York City|Sunday Bloody Sunday]]", written shortly after the 1972 massacre of Irish civil rights activists (which differs from [[U2]]'s 1983 song of the same title in that it directly supports the Irish Republican cause and does not call for peace), and "The Luck of the Irish", both from his album ''Some Time in New York City'' (1972).

The [[Wolfe Tones]] have become legendary in Ireland for their contribution to the Irish rebel genre. The band has been recording since 1963 and has attracted worldwide fame and attention through their renditions of traditional Irish songs and originals, dealing with the former conflict in Northern Ireland. In 2002 the Wolfe Tones' version of "[[A Nation Once Again]]", a nationalist song from the 19th century, was voted the greatest song in the world in a poll conducted by the [[BBC World Service]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The World's Top Ten|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/us/features/topten/|access-date=May 1, 2007|publisher=BBC}}</ref>

An Irish alternative rock/post punk band from [[Dublin]], [[U2]] broke with the rebel musical tradition when in 1983 they wrote their song "[[Sunday Bloody Sunday (song)|Sunday Bloody Sunday]]". The song makes reference to two separate massacres in Irish history of civilians by British forces – [[Bloody Sunday (1920)]] and [[Bloody Sunday 1972]] – however, unlike other songs dealing with those events, the lyrics call for peace as opposed to revenge.

[[The Cranberries]]' hit "[[Zombie (The Cranberries song)|Zombie]]", written during their English tour in 1993, is in memory of two boys, Jonathan Ball and Tim Parry, who were killed in [[Warrington bombings|an IRA bombing in Warrington]].