LAST UPDATE | 26 Sep 2023
ZOMBIE, THE WORLDWIDE ‘90s hit by The Cranberries has been the song of Ireland’s Rugby World Cup journey so far and to say that it’s been controversial on Twitter is something of an understatement.
Some of that comes down to the perennial irritation that the game of rugby generates in some sections of the Irish public, especially around the World Cup. The reaction to “Zombie” being played on such a large scale – and enjoyed by so many people in the stadium and watching on TV – has infuriated some people who believe the lyrics are a tacit criticism of Irish republican politics.
It’s not for me to say whether their reading of the song’s lyrics is right or wrong, given the subjective nature of interpreting any piece of music.
But it is for me to say how Zombie came to be associated with rugby in the first place because I was there.
On 18 December 2021 “Zombie” was used in a mainstream rugby setting for the first time in Thomond Park, Limerick during halftime in the European Cup game between Munster and Castres. It wasn’t just played over the tannoy, though, it was played in sync with a specially designed light show hooked up to the brand-new LED floodlights that had been installed that summer so, officially, “Zombie” was being lined up as part of the Munster matchday experience for a good four or five months beforehand.
The initial response to the song being played was… decent. I was in the crowd at the time and you could hear a few sections muttering along to the chorus. It wasn’t really over with the crowd to the point they were singing along in massive numbers but it was noticed and Munster kept on playing “Zombie” at halftime for the rest of the season – more on that later.
At that point, Munster had been walking out to “Can’t Stop” by The Red Hot Chilli Peppers for a number of years at PRO14 games.
In the European Champions Cup, the walkout music is mandated as Industrial Revolution Part II written by Jean Michel Jarre and performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra where both sides walk out alongside each other.
Later that season, Munster would play Toulouse in front of 40,000 Munster fans in the Aviva Stadium and play out a thrilling draw that would go to extra time. “Zombie” wasn’t played at halftime during the regular game but, during the break in extra time, the stadium DJ put on the Cranberries and the kind of alchemy that only happens with the right music played at the right time in front of the right crowd… happened. The entire stadium was singing “Zombie” – I was there, and I was roaring it – and the chorus led right into the start of the second half of extra time with the entire stadium on their feet roaring at the top of their lungs.
It was magic – straight away my social media was going ballistic with how emotionally resonant “Zombie” was at that moment.
Munster would go on to lose that game on penalties but the impact of “Zombie” stayed with everyone who experienced it live. In that moment it was cauterised into something special but it wasn’t heard again that season as Munster didn’t play at home for the duration of the campaign.
Over the summer, the then-head coach Johann Van Graan left as head coach of Munster and his replacement, Graham Rowntree and the playing group wanted to mark out a new vibe for the club. One of the things they changed to accomplish that new vibe was replacing “Can’t Stop” with “Zombie” as the new Munster walkout song, which they did for the first time in Thomond Park on 15 October 2022.
It got a memorable outing in Pairc Ui Chaoimh that November when Munster beat what was essentially South Africa A in front of 40,000 people and then again after the game, which produced a really great crowd reaction. I heard it sung by groups of young lads as I walked back into Cork City in the rain later that evening. It was further embedded into the Munster psyche when it was played in the aftermath of big wins in Dublin and Cape Town on the way to Munster’s first trophy in 12 years in May 2023. Munster sang it in the dressing room after the game with the trophy in the middle of the room and they sang it with 10,000 people in Thomond Park a few days later for the homecoming.
It became a Munster anthem.
Prior to this usage, the only other mainstream sporting use of “Zombie” as walkout music I’d seen was when Aisling Daly used it ahead of a UFC fight in the 3Arena in 2015.
It was also used by another UFC fighter around that time called Jung Chan-sung, known as the Korean Zombie. There has been some talk in the last few days of Limerick Hurling using Zombie in the last few years and that being the source of Munster’s usage. Still, I’ve been to plenty of matches in the Gaelic Grounds and elsewhere and the song that’s always used after big wins was “Dreams” by the Cranberries, not “Zombie”.
It’s a fact that “Zombie” was planned as something to add to the matchday experience by Munster because (a) it’s a very popular song that everyone knows with a chorus easily sung by a crowd and (b) The Cranberries are a Limerick band and Munster play most often in Thomond Park, Limerick so the ol’ “Athenry’s in Galway” thing doesn’t apply.
That brings us to this World Cup. How did it jump from Munster to Ireland? In all likelihood? Happenstance. The World Cup organisers control the stadium experience tightly – which explains the children’s choir anthems – so their decision to play “Zombie” after Ireland beat Tonga a few weeks ago was likely as simple as Googling something like “Ireland rugby stadium song” and finding “Zombie” relatively recently.
The reaction to it was so good that the organisers likely cued it up if Ireland beat South Africa to get another “World Cup moment” that they could – and did – share on socials when the Irish crowd duly obliged.
When the IRFU did have control over what was played in a celebratory fashion after a game back in the Six Nations they used “Freed From Desire” by Gala so the idea that this is something planned and executed by the IRFU as some kind of political statement is pretty unlikely.
People can feel whatever way they want about the song’s personal meaning to them but for the vast, vast majority of the people singing it, it’s about the buzz of being in a crowd of thousands singing an emotionally resonant song in the aftermath of sporting success.
Tom Savage is an independent rugby writer who created Three Red Kings in 2015.
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