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Zombie (The Cranberries song)

"Zombie" is a protest song by Irish alternative rock band the Cranberries. It was written by the lead singer, Dolores O'Riordan, about the young victims of a bombing in Warrington, England, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The song was released on 19 September 1994 by Island Records as the lead single from the Cranberries' second studio album, No Need to Argue (1994). Critics have described "Zombie" as "a masterpiece of alternative rock", with grunge-style distorted guitar and shouted vocals uncharacteristic of the band's other work.

While Island feared releasing a politically charged song as a single, "Zombie" reached No. 1 on the charts of Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, and Iceland. The song did not chart on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, but it reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Alternative Airplay chart. Listeners of the Australian radio station Triple J voted it No. 1 on the 1994 Triple J Hottest 100 chart, and it won the Best Song Award at the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards. The music video was directed by Samuel Bayer, and featured O'Riordan singing while painted gold, and footage of war-torn Belfast. In April 2020, it became the first song by an Irish group to surpass one billion views on YouTube.

The Cranberries noted that "Zombie" drew strong responses from audiences. After O'Riordan's death in 2018, it became an Irish stadium anthem, first for the teams from the Cranberries' hometown of Limerick, and later for the Ireland national rugby union team starting in the 2023 Rugby World Cup. The band recorded acoustic, stripped-down versions on MTV Unplugged and the 2017 album Something Else. "Zombie" has been covered by numerous artists; O'Riordan had planned to contribute vocals to a version by the American band Bad Wolves, which was released days after her death.

Background and composition
The Troubles were a conflict in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to 1998. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), an Irish republican paramilitary organisation, waged an armed campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland and unite the region with the Republic of Ireland. Republican and Unionist paramilitaries killed more than 3,500 people, many from thousands of bomb attacks. One of the bombings happened on 30 March 1993, as two IRA improvised explosive devices hidden in litter bins were detonated in a shopping street in Warrington, England. Two people; Johnathan Ball, aged 3, and Tim Parry, aged 12, were killed in the attack. 56 people were injured. Ball died at the scene of the bombing as a result of his shrapnel-inflicted injuries, and five days later, Parry lost his life in a hospital as a result of head injuries. O'Riordan decided to write a song that reflected upon the event and the children's deaths after visiting the town:

"There were a lot of bombs going off in London and I remember this one time a child was killed when a bomb was put in a rubbish bin – that's why there's that line in the song, 'A child is slowly taken'. [ ... ] We were on a tour bus and I was near the location where it happened, so it really struck me hard – I was quite young, but I remember being devastated about the innocent children being pulled into that kind of thing. So I suppose that's why I was saying, 'It's not me' – that even though I'm Irish it wasn't me, I didn't do it. Because being Irish, it was quite hard, especially in the UK when there was so much tension."

O'Riordan stated the song came to her "subconsciously" midway through the Cranberries' English tour in 1993, writing the core chords on her acoustic guitar. Once O'Riordan was back in her hometown of Limerick and returned to her apartment after a night out, she played those chords and started building a song around them, quickly "coming up with the chorus, which was catchy and anthemic", and soon moving onto the verses. O'Riordan took the song idea, originally titled "In Your Head", into the Cranberries' small rehearsal shed in Mungret. Given she was playing an acoustic guitar, the rest of the band initially followed along in, as guitarist Noel Hogan put it, "that kind of sweet indie pop thing" that the band featured in their other songs, before O'Riordan decided that it was not what she wanted, picked up an electric guitar and stated that "it needs to be heavy because it's angry". Drummer Fergal Lawler recalled that usually in that small room, "you're trying to keep it low because you don't want to deafen anybody", but O'Riordan played it loud and "we couldn't really hear the lyrics because she was singing through her guitar", and that the singer was adamant that she wanted more distortion pedals on the guitars and asked for more strength than usual in drumming.

Production and release
Soon after "Zombie" was completed, the band brought it onto their set list, with Lawler noting that the song was played live for a whole year before being recorded, and audiences responded with enthusiasm. The song was recorded and mixed at The Manor Studio in Oxford and at Townhouse Studios in London in 1994 with producer Stephen Street. They spent a long time working on getting the guitar settings right to give a suitably expansive sound, with O'Riordan noting "the sound came organically, because we were using our live instruments, we were plugging in a lot, and we started to mess around with feedback and distortion". Hogan contributed rhythm guitar to provide textures under O'Riordan's riffs. The song represented a radical departure from the sound based largely on jangly guitar and strings that the band showcased on debut album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?. Hogan stated that "Zombie" made the band realize "that you can actually be heavy and still have melody", marking a changing point in their composition style and live performances.

Knowing of the song's potential, the Cranberries wanted "Zombie" to be lead single in advance of the album No Need to Argue. Former manager Allen Kovac stated that Island Records urged them not to release the "politically urgent" song as a single, and that O'Riordan had ripped up a $1-million cheque the label offered her to work on another song. "Dolores was a very small, fragile person, but very opinionated," said Kovac. "Her belief was that she was an international artist and she wanted to break the rest of the world, and 'Zombie' was part of that evolution. She felt the need to expand beyond 'I love you, you love me' and write about what was happening in Ireland at the time", he said. Island Records and management also claimed that the song was "too controversial, you might not get played on the radio". Hogan added that the label were not expecting a lead single sounding different from the band's output "instead of coming out with another “Linger” or “Dreams”". Lawler recalled arguing to the record label that during the year the band had played "Zombie" in concert, "for a new song that the audience hadn't heard before, they really reacted to it", which was "a sign that it's a catchy song. People like it. It has to work.” Over time, "[w]e pushed and pushed and eventually they decided to release it", he said. By the time the single for "Zombie" was released on 19 September 1994, as well as its parent album No Need to Argue the following month, with an accompanying music video for the song in heavy rotation on MTV, the Cranberries were catapulted to international stardom. Shortly after the song and video came out, ideological beliefs came rushing to the forefront of local newspapers, criticizing O'Riordan for "writing about the Troubles"; of these comments, she "knew that would be the angle of the song, because it was controversial". Assessing the cultural impact of their song, Hogan responded: "Because of this song, people thought we were a political band. ... Far from it. Dolores always wrote from the heart". O'Riordan would later state, "If I think something, I have to say it. And I really don't care what anybody thinks, you know?". NPR's Andrew Limbong, speaking after O'Riordan's death in 2018, said "even though it was a political song, it wasn't necessarily politics she was interested in writing about". O'Riordan said, "I just cannot accept children being slaughtered at the hands of political violence", and hoped that "it might make people reflect a bit on our society and what we've become."

Music and lyrics
"Zombie" has been characterised by commentators as alternative rock and grunge. O'Riordan later said that the song was not a concerted effort to ride the grunge movement, but she stated that "this wasn't grunge, but the timing was good", adding, that "[w]e were just a different type of a band... and we had a lot of our own ideas". Hogan noted in a Rolling Stone interview that the Cranberries were beforehand accepted by "the same kind of [grunge] audience". O'Riordan was responsible for the heavier sound, a mere expression of her musical taste, as she would say later "we got it out of our system... all that anger out of our system". Discussing the musical approach for the song and the requirement of a sound significantly louder, Hogan explained in a 2012 interview with Amsterdam's FaceCulture that "the heavier sound was the right thing for the song. If it was soft, it wouldn't have had that impact. It would stand out in the live set because of that". Particularly offended that terrorists claimed to have carried out these acts in the name of Ireland, O'Riordan asserted: "The IRA are not me. I'm not the IRA. 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". At the time, O'Riordan received criticism for "Zombie"'s "hard-hitting lyrics"; she nevertheless pointed out that the song was written from a humanitarian point of view. O’Riordan's mother Eileen has stated, "It wasn’t written as a political song but as an anti-violence, an anti-war song."

O'Riordan never revealed the origin of the "zombie" reference in the lyrics, a concept which admits a personal interpretation of its meaning. However, there was a divergence of opinion among writers on the subject. Writing for The Telegraph, Ed Power formulated his own hypothesis, saying that the word Zombie was "a commentary on how blindly cleaving to centuries old prejudices can reduce [one's] capacity for independent thought". Culture Trip writer Graham Fuller commented that the metaphor perhaps "reanimates the children whose deaths inspired O'Riordan to write it". Sonia Saraiya, music and TV critic from Miami Herald and Chicago Tribune, had a different view, saying that the Zombie is not the dead children, but "the dead children that populate your mind; the dead bodies you've seen in the images that you can't forget".

Singing voice
O'Riordan's vocals were noted as reminiscent of the sean-nós singing style, for the rapid and repeated changes in pitch, most notably yodeling when she does the sharp break from chest register to head register in the second syllable of the word Zom-bie, and doing an amplified method forming her vowels and consonants. This creates a vocal trademark when combined with the Gaelic keening, the lilting vocables, and sung in her thick Irish accent. Author Bart Plantenga wrote in his book Yodel in Hi-Fi: From Kitsch Folk to Contemporary Electronica that "[h]er waify, quavering, breaking voice has a natural 'Celtic yodel' in it. It can also be heard on 'Zombie [and other songs] used "for fantastic emotional effect". Mikael Wood of Los Angeles Times described O'Riordan "pushing her voice to a jagged extreme to embody the pain", with a "desperate, yodeling vocal that conjures some ancient emotion". Far Out Magazine commented that her vocal performance was "guttural, pleading, captivating and utterly unique, O'Riordan begs for humanity the only way she knew how". Saraiya wrote that her voice "often seemed bigger than her petite frame", and also commented that the chorus "practically grunted out of her otherwise bell-like voice with a guttural vowel sound".

O'Riordan's voice is just in a league all its own. She makes no effort to hide her accent. In fact, it adds a richness and character to her voice. O'Riordan lays it all out on the table. Beautifully. Uncompromising and unrelenting. O'Riordan sinks her hooks into you and holds you hostage with her breathtaking vocal onslaught.

Praise
Tedium's editor Ernie Smith said, "O'Riordan wrote it in a moment of anger and passion", and called the song "one of the defining songs of the alternative rock era". In a different perspective, Rebecca Black of Belfast Telegraph described "Zombie" as an "outraged response to the Warrington bombs", while music reporter Mark Savage wrote that "her pain was real", describing it as "a visceral response to the death of two children". In a contemporary review, Hot Press hailed the song and its arrangements, saying that it was stylistically different from the band's previous works: "Staccato rhythms and subtle jerks and pauses in the music and the singing make this more than just business-as-usual for the Cranberries. A slow, brooding Siouxsie-like buzzing guitar melody and dirge-like bass and drums counterpoint the elliptical and impassioned vocals of Dolores O'Riordan as she works her way through the internal psychic and external human tragedies of the Troubles [...] "Zombie" signals a growth in confidence". The Rough Guide to Rock identified the album No Need to Argue as "more of the same" as the Cranberries' debut album, except for the song "Zombie", which had an "angry grunge" sound and "aggressive" lyrics. Music critic Evelyn McDonnell allowed that O'Riordan had a "certain naivety to her and also a real toughness". New York arts editor Graham Fuller partially echoed this view, saying "she was right, but that naivety serves a song that's an unfiltered reaction to a tragedy. It goes with Zombie's primal fury; slicker lyrics would have diluted the song's rawness".

Music critic Neil McCormick wrote that it was the Cranberries' "fiercest rock song... An accusatory lament, it grapples with the endless recriminations of the Irish Troubles, with a slow rolling bass line and thumping mid-tempo beat, finding tension between melodic delicacy and introspection in the verses with a keening, wailing chorus charged with distorted grungy guitars". Music & Media stated that it "combines moody soundscapes with some grunge-y guitar attacks that together make an arresting number". Charles Aaron from Spin commented, "I like "Zombie" because its crunching, troubled guitar fuzz was the loudest thing on MTV during the last days of '94. Just ask Bono, my Irish Setter. He's still wailing." Josh Jones of Open Culture, described the "Gen X heyday"'s song, as "O'Riordan's stadium-size hit ... and its beautifully pained laments and pointedly unsubtle yelps and wails—a stunning expression of mourning that reverberates still some 25 years later". Martin Aston of Music Week wrote: "Having broken the UK on the back of their US success, the Cranberries continue to use their pop acumen to fashion wonderful, wistful pop nuggets. Zombie is a little heavier and less user-friendly than Linger and Dreams, but no less sublime for it." In 2018, Billboard and Stereogum ranked the song number three and number two, respectively, on their lists of the top ten Cranberries songs.

On 16 January 2018, following O'Riordan's death, Colin Parry, father of IRA victim Tim Parry, thanked O'Riordan for the "both majestic and also very real lyrics". "Many people have become immune to the pain and suffering that so many people experienced during that armed campaign", he said. "To read the words written by an Irish band in such a compelling way was very, very powerful."

Criticism
Paul Brannigan of Louder writes, "Not everyone, however, was impressed by [O'Riordan's] credentials for the role of commentator on one of the most complex conflicts of the modern era." AllMusic said the song "trivialised" the events of the Troubles, and that the "heavy rock trudge" did not play to the band's strengths. Upon the song's release, David Stubbs from Melody Maker said, "'Zombie' doesn't make a born-again fan of me, with its lethargic, samey, grungy riff lurching predictably towards anthem status. But I like Dolores O' Riordan's vocal, like Dana on heroin, all tattered, snarling and trembling at her wits' end." At the same time, Northern Irish band Schtum told Melody Maker, "She's from Limerick, what the fuck would she know? You're talking about the last 25 years of a much bigger and wider problem that has gone on for hundreds of years". Brannigan writes: ""Schtum hailed from Derry, a city 224 miles away from Limerick by road, but one which may as well have been on a different planet to the rural village where Dolores O’Riordan was raised. When the singer protested "It's not me, it's not my family", explicitly distancing herself from the violence in Northern Ireland, and its overspill into England and elsewhere, she spoke the truth: no-one from her family was present at the Battle of the Bogside in Derry from August 12-14, 1969, for instance, or on January 30, 1972, when soldiers from the Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights campaigners in the city, killing 14 unarmed civilians in a massacre which came to be known as Bloody Sunday. Equally, her family had the good fortune to be untouched by any of the atrocities claimed by the Provisional IRA (or any other paramilitary faction) during her lifetime. So removed, in fact, was O’Riordan from events in Northern Ireland that, in her lyrics to Zombie, she references "tanks" on the streets, perhaps confusing Belfast with Beijing.""

Iestyn George from NME felt "the timing of this release, as much as the sentimental itself, seems more than a little askew".

Accolades
On 23 November 1995, the Cranberries won the Best Song Award for "Zombie" at the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards.

In November 2022, the song was voted as the greatest Irish hit of all time by RTÉ 2fm listeners in compiling the ultimate Irish playlist for a television special shown on RTÉ One.

As a sporting anthem
Following the death of O'Riordan in 2018, the hurling team from her home county of Limerick adopted "Zombie" as their anthem during their successful run to the All-Ireland Championship. It soon became a rugby anthem as well; Limerick-based Munster initially played it in tribute to O'Riordan, and crowd reaction led to it becoming a post-match staple.

The song was re-popularised in 2023 after it was played after Ireland games at the 2023 Rugby World Cup. It was picked up by fans of the Irish team, with videos of fans singing the song in chorus accumulating hundreds of thousands of views on social media. This offended Irish nationalists, who identified it as an "anti-IRA" anthem, and said that that the lyrics failed to consider their experience during the Troubles.

Irish political leaders supported the use of the song as a rugby anthem. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described it as "a song that we can all sing comfortably. It’s an anti-terrorism song. It’s not a nationalist or unionist song." SDLP leader Colum Eastwood wrote that "'Zombie' is an anti-war song written after the IRA killed 2 children in Warrington", adding that criticism of nationalist violence is not an endorsement of loyalist violence, writing "Most of us opposed both".

Commercial performance
"Zombie" topped the charts in many countries. On 29 October 1994, the song went to No. 1 on the US Billboard Alternative Airplay chart, spending twenty-three weeks on the chart. In 1994, "Zombie" was "the most played song ever on alternative radio in the history of America", as mentioned in the Los Angeles Times and in Kenneth L. Campbell's book, Ireland's History – Prehistory to the Present. Junkee journalist Jules LeFevre recalled that Australian audiences were "particularly gripped by the song", with Triple J listeners voting for "Zombie" as No. 1 on the Triple J Hottest 100, 1994 chart, establishing for the first time ever that a female vocalist won the Triple J Hottest 100. On 18 December 1994, the song reached No. 1 on the ARIA Singles Chart, where it remained for seven consecutive weeks. The single peaked at No. 1 and spent twenty eight weeks on the Official German Charts. On 25 December 1994, the single debuted at No. 27 on the Ö3 Austria Top 40, and climbed to No. 2, where it stayed for eight weeks. "Zombie" debuted on the French SNEP Top 100 at No. 4 on 25 February 1995. The following week, the single moved to No. 1; it spent nine consecutive weeks at the top and a total of forty-two weeks on the singles chart. The song reached No. 14 on the UK Singles Chart.

Island Records declined the prospect of releasing "Zombie" as a single to US stores, stating they didn't want to run counter to the band's original ethos. Music critic Jon Bream of Star Tribune elaborated succinctly the label's analysis: "For the band, it's a question of credibility". Bream further noted that Island Records "simply didn't want the industry to typecast the Cranberries as a Top 40 act". After releasing the song, later in the year, the Cranberries affirmed their alternative identity, saying that they "didn't want to be considered just a pop band". Drummer Fergal Lawler said, "[t]hen you can go to the other extreme of being so alternative that no one buys your records. Luckily, we're kind of in the middle. We're a mix of pop, rock and alternative, I suppose."

After Cranberries' lead singer O'Riordan died in January 2018, "Zombie" charted at number 13 on the UK Singles Downloads Chart.

In 2023, the song saw a sales surge in the UK and Ireland during the 2023 Rugby World Cup; the song was played on speakers after every time the Irish team scored. "Zombie" peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Downloads Chart during this time.

Background and production
"Zombie" was released with a music video in October 1994. The video was directed by Samuel Bayer, through company HSI Productions. The music video was filmed in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the heart of the Troubles with real footage, and in Dublin. Bayer insisted on going to Belfast for authenticity regarding illustrating "something this visceral and intense". To record video footage of murals, children and British Army soldiers on patrol, he had a false pretext, with a cover story about making a documentary about the peace-keeping efforts in Ireland. Bayer stated that a shot in the video where an SA80 rifle is pointed directly at the camera is a suspicious British soldier asking him to leave, and that the IRA were keeping a close look at the shoot, given "the British Army come in with fake film crews, getting people on camera.” O'Riordan remembered Bayer telling her "how tense it was and how he was blown away by the whole thing. He got footage of the kids jumping from one building to another, and he got a lot of footage of the army. He was a very good director". O'Riordan also wanted to add images with "an abstract message", saying it would represent "the beauty that we see in the world or that we care to open our eyes to" while the black and white footage of Belfast "symbolize the pain that’s there and we close our eyes to". She suggested herself painted gold, and Bayer added children painted silver and a cross that "symbolized Christ suffering and dying, and all the pain that was caused to him". This was filmed on a sound stage in Los Angeles.

Synopsis
In the video, O'Riordan is covered in gold makeup and appears in front of a giant cross with a group of boys characterized as cherubs, covered in silver makeup holding bows and arrows. The video also includes the band playing in Belfast alongside clips of local children playing war games, destroyed buildings, murals with war-related paintings, and of British soldiers from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders on patrol in Northern Ireland.

BBC and RTÉ ban
The music video for "Zombie" was banned by the BBC because of its "violent images". It was also banned by the RTÉ, Ireland's national broadcaster. Instead, both the BBC and the RTÉ opted to broadcast an edited version focusing on footage of the band in a live performance, a version that the Cranberries essentially disowned. Despite their efforts to maintain the original video "out of view from the public", some of the initial footage prevailed, with scenes of children holding guns.

Reception and accolades
"Zombie" received heavy rotation on MTV Europe and was A-listed on Germany's VIVA in December 1994. The video gained a nomination for Best Alternative Video at the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards. Writer Josh Jones commented that "The 'Zombie' video offers a classic collection of 90s stylistic quirks, from Derek Jarman–inspired setpieces to the use of black and white and earnest political messaging". He added, "[f]or us old folks, it's an almost pure hit of nostalgia, and for the young, a nearly perfect specimen of the decade's rock aesthetics". On 23 October 2019, "Zombie" was ranked No. 5 on a "definitive list of the world's most-viewed rock music videos", released by Vevo.

On 18 April 2020, the official music video had succeeded in reaching over 1 billion views on YouTube and became the first song by an Irish artist, and sixth song from the 20th century to reach the milestone. Bassist Mike Hogan said of the achievement that "I can still remember making such a great video and seeing the impact that it had – and still does – on people". On 20 April 2020, the music video for "Zombie" remastered in 4K resolution was officially released for YouTube with previously unseen footage from the original video shoot.

Live performances
A version of "Zombie" was already played one year before the release of No Need to Argue, on the band's first European tour with Hothouse Flowers, after the release of Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?. One such performance, recorded at the Astoria 2 in London in January 1994, seven months before "Zombie" was released as a single, would later be issued on the 2019 live DVD The Cranberries Live.

On 13 August 1994, two months prior to the release of No Need to Argue, the Cranberries performed at the Woodstock '94 music festival in New York. Towards the end of "Zombie", O'Riordan dedicated the song to others, like the victims of ethnic cleansing, declaring that "this song is our cry against man's inhumanity to man, inhumanity to child", adding, "and war, babies dying, and Belfast, and Bosnia, and Rwanda".

The Cranberries kept "Zombie" in their concert setlists throughout their career. On 11 November 1994, the Cranberries featured as the musical guest on US talk show Late Show with David Letterman, performing the lead single one month after No Need to Argue was released. Junkee music editor Jules LeFevre, wrote that the footage captured "O'Riordan's extraordinary voice" and considered the live performance as "straight-up sublime".

On 14 February 1995, the band recorded a nine-song set including "Zombie", for MTV Unplugged, accompanied by Electra Strings, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City.

On 25 February 1995, The Cranberries played the song on their appearance on the US show Saturday Night Live, in a slow tempo performance that British author Dave Thompson called "one of the most powerful performances that the show has ever seen". The episode came a week after record producer Denny Cordell, an early mentor to the Cranberries, had died. Writer Ed Power wrote that the performance "has the rawness of early grief", while Rolling Stone would later declare it "one of the greatest SNL turns".

The band released a stripped-down version of "Zombie", recorded for Something Else, an unplugged album that features acoustic renditions of songs from their catalog, accompanied by the Limerick-based Irish Chamber Orchestra. The song appeared on the set list of their 2017 tour, featuring the Irish Chamber Orchestra's string quartet.

Censorship
In March 2003, on the eve of the outbreak of the Iraq War, the British Government and the Independent Television Commission issued a statement saying ITC's Programme Code would temporarily remove from broadcast songs and music videos featuring "sensitive material", including "Zombie". Numerous media groups complied with the decision to avoid "offending public feeling", along with MTV Europe. Since it violated the ITC guidelines, "Zombie" was placed on a blacklist of songs, targeting its official music video. The censorship was lifted once the war had ended.

In August 2006, CBS censored a performance of "Zombie" by Rock Star: Supernova contestant Dilana, as a result of the lyrics and deleted all mentions of tanks, bombs and guns. Although CBS declined to comment, an employee claimed that it was "worried that the song might be seen as an anti-Iraq War statement".

Bad Wolves cover
The American heavy metal band Bad Wolves recorded a cover of "Zombie" in 2017 while they were working on their debut album Disobey. The band's singer Tommy Vext slightly altered the lyrics, inserting a reference to drones and replacing "since 1916" with "in 2018" to show that times haven't changed. Upon recording, the band were unsure regarding adding it to the album, with Vext declaring "The song is a masterpiece and a massive hit. Some art is sacred—you become afraid to do a rendition of it". On 21 December 2017, Vext met Dan Waite—the Internal managing director of Bad Wolves' record label Eleven Seven Label Group-Europe and a long-time close friend of O'Riordan—backstage at London's Wembley Arena at a heavy metal concert. Then he asked Waite to send her the cover for consideration as well as her approval for its release. Vext commented that "I just got the courage to ask him to send her the song to see if she would approve of it. It's always a jarring thing to take on someone's piece of work: especially as The Cranberries were a massive band, and 'Zombie' was probably their biggest song". On Christmas Eve 2017, Waite sent a text message to Vext that said O'Riordan had offered to "sing on it". Vext described the situation as "one of my childhood dreams come true", while the others musicians "almost didn't believe it".

On 14 January 2018, O'Riordan flew from her home in New York City to London. According to O'Riordan's agent, Lindsey Holmes, the primary purpose of her flight was for a studio mixing session on Monday and Tuesday with Martin "Youth" Glover for her side project's second album, and she was also due to meet with The Cranberries' record label BMG. On 15 January 2018, at 1:12 am GMT at her Mayfair hotel in London, O'Riordan left a voice message to Waite, where she expressed her thoughts, describing the cover as "awesome". She also invited Waite to come in the studio, slated for later that morning, and listen to the results of her vocals recording. O'Riordan was later found unresponsive in the hotel bathroom and confirmed dead at 09:16 am. Following her death, Bad Wolves said,

"We are shocked and saddened at the news of Dolores' passing. [ ... ] We have always had deep respect for her as an artist and a vocalist and she was never afraid to bare her soul in her music and lyrics. 'Zombie' is an incredibly personal song and although we are a hard rock band, [w]e always felt the rawness and honesty she projected on stage and in her recordings was something to which all bands should aspire to, regardless of genre. When we heard she liked our version and wanted to sing on it, it was the greatest compliment a new band, or any band for that matter, could have received."

Bad Wolves released the cover on 18 January 2018. The cover topped the US Billboard Mainstream Rock chart in May 2018 for three weeks and peaked at No. 54 on the Hot 100. In June 2018, at a concert in New York City, Bad Wolves donated $250,000 to O'Riordan's children. The idea of making a donation was set up by Allen Kovac, Eleven Seven Label Group founder, and former manager of The Cranberries.

In an interview, bassist Kyle Konkiel shared his thoughts on the new cover's sound:

"[Our version] is kind of a darker more melodic feel than the original, which had a lot of heavy guitars and that legendary bassline and more focus on the actual instruments than the lyrics themselves."

Music video
The song's music video was directed by Wayne Isham. It begins with text discussing the cover's background and the passing of O'Riordan. The video then cuts to shots of the band performing the song in a black room, wearing black clothing and playing black instruments interspersed with close-up scenes of a woman (played by Ava Capra) being covered in gold paint to resemble O'Riordan in the original video. The woman also smears gold paint on a glass pane between herself and Vext, and after the guitar solo, she etches "1-15-18", the date of O'Riordan's death, into the paint. The video ends with a quote by Vext, "Her lyrics, confronting the collateral damage of political unrest, capture the same sentiment we wanted to express a quarter-century later. That is a testament to the kind of enduring artist Dolores was, and will remain forever."

Other notable covers

 * In late 1994, a cover version by Spanish mákina group Ororo was released in conjunction with the original version. This version reached No. 1 in Spain and No. 16 in Austria.
 * In 1995, a Eurodance cover version by Italian quartet A.D.A.M. featuring Amy reached No. 16 in the UK Singles Chart, No. 65 in Australia, No. 20 in France, No. 7 in Ireland, No. 9 in Italy, and No. 35 in Belgium.
 * In 2011, Christina Parie covered the song on The X Factor Australia. After her performance, the song re-entered the ARIA Top 100 Singles Chart at No. 69.
 * In 2017, Dutch hardstyle DJ Ran-D released a cover of the song on Armada Records which was certified gold in the Netherlands in 2019.
 * In February 2018, the pop rock band Dreamers released a cover of the song.
 * In 2018, Ghostly Kisses' sophomore EP This City Holds My Heart closed with a cover of the song.
 * On 16 January 2019, to mark the first anniversary of O'Riordan's death, Chicago rapper Vic Mensa released a cover song through his punk-inspired band named 93Punx. On 27 April 2020, one week after The Cranberries music video reached one billion views on YouTube, 93Punx released their music video including their own live footage and interspersed with scenes from the original video.
 * On 18 October 2020, American singer Miley Cyrus performed a cover of the song at NIVA Save Our Stages at Whisky a Go Go, a fundraiser concert streamed live on YouTube. Cyrus later on released her live cover to digital and streaming platforms and announced that the track would be one of the two (the latter being another viral take at Blondie's "Heart of Glass") covers that would be a part of her seventh full-studio album Plastic Hearts. The Cranberries expressed approval at Cyrus's version, posting on their official Twitter page that it was "one of the finest covers of the song that we've heard." Cyrus was flattered by the compliments, and stated the performance was inspired by her feeling like it was "really timely, even though it was a cover and maybe an older song, it just felt like it was super right now", adding that the lyrics "just really resonated" with her. The cover entered the Billboard Digital Songs at No. 34 and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs at No. 21, while  also charting at No. 193 in France.
 * In 2023, DJs and producers Illenium, Excision and Wooli made a remix of "Zombie" featuring vocals by Valerie Broussard. It reached No. 28 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs chart.
 * In 2024, Bambie Thug released a cover of "Zombie" as promotion for their Eurovision Song Contest 2024 performance, claiming the song was relevant to protest the Israel-Hamas war.

title: Zombie (The Cranberries song)


text:
La Roche-Maurice

La Roche-Maurice (Ar Roc'h-Morvan) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France.

Population
Inhabitants of La Roche-Maurice are called in French Rochois.

International relations
La Roche Maurice's twin town is Bishopsteignton, a village between Newton Abbot and Teignmouth in Devon, England.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: La Roche-Maurice


text:
Talk:Meroveus

"Some researchers have noted that Merovech, the Frankish chieftain, may have been the namesake of a certain god or demigod honored by the Franks prior to their conversion to Christianity, a being described as part human, part bull and part sea-creature" Does this sound like an authentic Germanic deity to anyone? "Some researchers" is a smokescreen for the passive voice of non-attribution, Wikipedia's tragic flaw. Wetman 17:00, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Meroveus


text:
University of Fribourg

The University of Fribourg (Université de Fribourg; Universität Freiburg) is a public university located in Fribourg, Switzerland.

The roots of the university can be traced back to 1580, when the notable Jesuit Peter Canisius founded the Collège Saint-Michel in the City of Fribourg. In 1763, an academy of law was founded by the state of Fribourg which formed the nucleus of the present law faculty. The University of Fribourg was finally created in 1889 by an Act of the parliament of the Swiss Canton of Fribourg.

The University of Fribourg is Switzerland's only bilingual university and offers full curricula in both French and German, two of Switzerland's national languages. Students number about 10,000; there are about 200 tenured professors and 700 other academic teaching and research personnel. The Misericorde Campus, constructed between 1939 and 1942, was designed by the architects Honegger and Dumas, students of Swiss architect Le Corbusier.

There are five faculties: Catholic theology, law, natural sciences, humanities, and economics & social sciences.

History

The university owes its earliest origin to the foundation of the Jesuit College St. Michel on Belze Hill by Peter Canisius in 1580 at the invitation of the government of Fribourg. In 1763, an Academy of Law was founded, housed in the Albertinium (now a Dominican residence). In 1834, the cantonal library was formed from works brought to Fribourg (from Catholic monasteries) for safekeeping. The College St. Michel was closed following the expulsion of the Jesuits from Fribourg after the canton's defeat in the Sonderbund war.

In 1886, Georges Python, founder of the cantonal bank and State Counsellor for Fribourg (M.P. in the upper house of the Swiss parliament) became Director of Public Education. He raised funds through a lottery and was granted some 2,500,000 CHF by the canton. The cantonal library became integrated with that of the university and the academy became the Faculty of Law. In 1939, the university moved to a new campus constructed on the former cemetery of Misericorde, ceding St. Michel to one of Fribourg's gymnasia, which took the name College St. Michel. During the Second World War, the university set up "university camps" along with the University of Zürich, Handels-Hochschule in St. Gallen and a Lycée camp at Wetzikon provided a wide variety of courses to educate Polish prisoners of war.

The Perolles campus was constructed on the site of a former wagon factory.

Although many lectures were originally in Latin, Fribourg is now the only French/German bilingual university in the world (45% French and 55% German). The town itself is 70% French and 30% German. This fact, coupled with the traditional dominance of French as the language of the city aristocracy explains why French has remained so dominant in university administration and in the AGEF (Association Générale des Etudiants Fribourgois), the Student's Union. To commemorate the centenary of the university, La Poste issued a stamp depicting the figures Science and Sagesse.

Recent developments
In 2005, the university inaugurated its Perolles 2 campus, to which the Faculty of Economics and Social Science relocated. The university has the third largest collection of Biblical antiquities in the world after the British Museum and the Cairo Museum. Fribourg has also developed FriMat, a centre of excellence in nanotechnology. As part of the BeNeFri association comprising the Universities of Berne, Neuchâtel and Fribourg, students at any one of these universities may take courses at another in the association and still receive credit at their home institution. The academic degrees were the Demi-Licence, Licence, DEA / DESS, Doctorate. The university now follows the requirements of the Bologna process.

The University of Fribourg launched for the 2009–2010 academic year a new postgraduate law programme, the Master of Laws in Cross-Cultural Business Practice (MLCBP), an LL.M taught entirely in English.

Campuses
Fribourg has no central campus and its buildings are located throughout the city. The main sites are:
 * Misericorde - Humanities and central administration (including the famous Senate room)
 * Perolles - Science
 * Perolles 2 - Economics & Social Sciences
 * Regina Mundi - Psychology
 * BCU centrale - Main Library (Cantonal and University Library of Fribourg)
 * Pierre Aeby - Department of Classical Philology
 * Bonnesfontaines - Pedagogy
 * Stade St. Leonard - University Stadium

Faculties
The Fribourg University is divided into five faculties:

 * The Faculty of Humanities is the largest faculty with about 4,600 students. They follow courses and seminars in the fields of philosophy, historical sciences, languages, literature, education, psychology or social sciences.
 * The Faculty of Law has about 1,900 students. The program includes national and international law; both subjects areas can be followed bilingual.
 * The Faculty of Theology is the largest and the most international of Switzerland, and, with Lucerne, it is the only state university in Switzerland to have a Faculty of Catholic Theology.
 * Approximately 1,400 students are enrolled in one of the four Bachelor programmes and one of the seven Master programmes of the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences. The faculty is composed of four departments: business management, economics, computer science, media and communication. In addition, the international institute of management in technology (iimt) and the Verbandsmanagement Institute (VMI) are attached to the Faculty.
 * The Faculty of Science and Medicine was founded in 1896 and comprises seven departments: biology, chemistry, geosciences, computer science, mathematics, medicine and physics. These cover 14 fields: biochemistry, biology, chemistry, geography, computer science, human medicine and dentistry (Bachelor), mathematics, neuroscience, pharmacy, physics, biomedical sciences, environmental sciences, earth sciences (geology) and sport. The Adolphe Merkle Institute (AMI) is an interdisciplinary research institute of the Faculty of Sciences devoted to fundamental and application-oriented research and teaching in the domain of soft nanomaterials.

Traditions

 * Dies Academicus - On this day in November every year, no lectures are held. Festivities begin with Mass in the Chapel of the Collège St. Michel. The members of the university then proceed to the Aula Magna (Great Hall) in solemn procession. After an address by the rector and a prominent guest speaker, honorary degrees are awarded. The student guilds attend in ceremonial dress including swords.
 * Corporations - These are similar to the Studentenverbindungen in Germany and Austria, but there is no de facto constraint to participate as it is in the student nations at the universities of Uppsala, Lund and Helsinki. They maintain Central European student traditions and meet at least once a week around a Stammtisch ("regulars’ table") in order to socialise, drink and sing together. They tend to be organised on linguistic lines. One of them is still engaged in dueling, while the other corporations in Fribourg already rejected this tradition at the time they were founded, amongst others for religious reasons. Membership has often been considered advantageous for those wishing to pursue a career in business, politics or law. Most of Fribourg's student corporations belong to the formerly Catholic Schweizerischer Studentenverein. An example is AV Fryburgia.
 * The Day of Welcomes (Jour D’Accueil) - Similar to Freshers’ Week in anglophone universities. New students are invited to the Aula Magna, where they are welcomed to Fribourg by the Rector and the Syndic (Mayor of the City of Fribourg). This is followed by a meal in the university mensa provided by the city, where new students are expected to dine with the rest of the faculty to which they have been admitted.
 * Every year, the Catholic Church holds collections during masses throughout Switzerland. Known as Fribourg Sunday, the funds raised are mainly used to award scholarships to foreign priests by the Faculty of Theology.

Branding
The university seal depicts a cross and bishop's ring representing the university's Catholic ethos on a shield of black and white, representing the canton of Fribourg. The logo of the university is a blue stylized "F" (with triangles echoing the facade structure of the Miséricorde Building and symbolizing the Alps) and the name of the university in Latin.

Writers and academics

 * Patrick Aebischer, former president of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
 * Pietro Balestra, Swiss economist specialized in econometrics
 * Hans Wolfgang Brachinger, German mathematician and econometrician
 * Mary Daly, feminist theologian and advocate of parthenogenesis
 * Reiner Eichenberger, Chair of the Center for Public Finance at the University of Fribourg
 * Lionel Groulx (1878–1967), Québécois priest and historian
 * Chantal Martin Soelch, Swiss clinical psychologist, academic, and author.
 * Vincas Mykolaitis, Lithuanian poet and writer
 * Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, Professor of New Testament at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem
 * Hugo Obermaier, prehistorian and anthropologist
 * Kazys Pakštas, geographer, founder of Lithuanian Geographical Society
 * Michel Plancherel, mathematician
 * Eleanor Purdie (1872–1929), philologist; first woman to obtain a doctorate from the University of Fribourg
 * Gonzague de Reynold, writer and academic, author of Cités et pays suisse
 * Léon Savary, writer and journalist
 * Csaba Szabo, pharmacologist
 * Wilhelm Schmidt, Austrian linguist, anthropologist, and ethnologist
 * Winfried Sebald, German writer
 * Peter Thullen, mathematician
 * Peter Trudgill, British sociolinguist and dialectologist
 * Werner Ulrich, Swiss social scientist and practical philosopher, one of the originators of "critical systems thinking" (CST)
 * Eliseo Verón, sociologist
 * Luc E. Weber, Rector Emeritus of the University of Geneva
 * Jean Zermatten, academic and Chair of U.N. Commission on the Rights of the Child
 * Maurice Zermatten, writer, winner of the Schiller International Prize

Clergy

 * Gilberto Agustoni, Prefect Emeritus of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature
 * Michael Browne O.P., Master General of the Order of Preachers
 * Georges Cottier, official theologian to the Papal Household (under John Paul II), Secretary of the International Theological Commission
 * Clemens August Graf von Galen
 * Bernard Genoud, Bishop of Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg
 * Basil Hume, former archbishop of Westminster
 * Franciszek Macharski, former archbishop of Kraków
 * Rupert Mayer Blessed, Jesuit critic of the Nationalist Socialist Regime
 * Peter Hildebrand Meienberg, East African missionary.
 * Gaspard Mermillod, attended the Jesuit Seminary that was the forerunner of the university; Cardinal Beer takes its name from him
 * Aloisius Joseph Muench, Bishop of Fargo, North Dakota
 * Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna
 * Henri Schwery, Bishop of Sion
 * Angelo Scola, Patriarch of Venice
 * Prince Max von Sachsen, Bishop, Prince of Saxony and son of King George of Saxony and Donna Maria Anna, the Infanta of Portugal
 * Dom Henry Wansbrough OSB
 * Albert Ziegler SJ, Swiss theologian, ethicist and author
 * Anton Rohner ON, Swiss clergy, philosopher and professor

Politics

 * Elijah Malok Aleng, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sudan and President of the Bank of Southern Sudan (2005–2011)
 * Gerard Batliner, former Head of Government (Regierungschef) of Liechtenstein (1962–1970)
 * Joseph Bech, Luxembourgian politician and 15th Prime Minister of Luxembourg
 * Juan Carlos I, King of Spain
 * Corina Casanova, Federal Chancellor of Switzerland 2008–2015
 * Enrico Celio, President of the Swiss Confederation 1943, 1948
 * Flavio Cotti, President of the Swiss Confederation 1991, 1998
 * Joseph Deiss, Federal Chancellor 1999–2006, President of the Swiss Confederation 2004, President of the United Nations General Assembly 2010–11
 * Kurt Furgler, President of the Swiss Confederation 1977, 1981 and 1985
 * Martine Brunschwig Graf, Swiss politician, member of the Swiss National Council
 * Otmar Hasler, Prime Minister of Liechtenstein 2001–09
 * Hans Hürlimann, President of the Swiss Confederation 1979
 * Arnold Koller, President of the Swiss Confederation 1990, 1997
 * Giuseppe Lepori, Federal Chancellor and Consigliere del popolo (M.P.) for Ticino
 * Richard Thomas McCormack, US Ambassador to the Organization of American States 1985–1989, US Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs 1989–1991
 * Ruth Metzler, Federal Chancellor, Member of the Swiss Federal Council 1999–2003, Vice President of the Swiss Confederation 2003
 * Stanisław Mieroszewski, member of the Imperial Council of Austria
 * Juli Minoves, Andorran ambassador, plenipotentiary, and political scientist
 * Ignacy Mościcki, President of Poland 1926–1939
 * Giuseppe Motta, Federal Chancellor (Swiss Cabinet member) 1911–40 (President of the Swiss Confederation 1915, '20, '27, '32, '37), President of the League of Nations 1924–25
 * Jean-Marie Musy, Federal Chancellor, Member of the Swiss Federal Council
 * Albert Pintat, head of the government of Andorra
 * Bill Press, U.S. political commentator and former Chairman of the Democratic Party of California
 * Judith Schmutz, Swiss politician, president of the Lucerne Cantonal Council 2023–2024
 * Simonetta Sommaruga, Member of the Swiss Federal Council 2010–present, President of the Swiss Confederation 2015
 * Ludwig von Moos, President of the Swiss Confederation 1964, 1969
 * Chaim Weizmann, first President of Israel
 * Sérgio Vieira de Mello, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 2002-2003 and UN Special Representative for Iraq 2003

Business and economics

 * Jean-Marie Ayer co-founder of Dartfish, chairman and CEO 1999–2003
 * Albert M. Baehny, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Geberit Group since January 1, 2005
 * Heinrich Burk, former CEO of ACNielsen
 * Urs Felber, Swiss industrialist, philanthropist and design pioneer
 * Stephan Klapproth, Swiss journalist and television presenter
 * Adolphe Merkle, founder of Vibro-Meter International AG, Adolphe Merkle Foundation
 * Marc Moret, former Chairman of Sandoz, uncle of Daniel Vasella's wife
 * Klaus Martin Schwab, German economist, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum
 * Arthur Dunkel (1932–2005), Swiss (Portuguese-born) administrator and a professor at the University of Fribourg; director-general of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 1980–1993

Sports

 * René Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation
 * Gianni Infantino, current FIFA president

Architecture

 * Mario Botta, founder of the Academy of Architecture at Mendrisio (Honoris Causa)

Judiciary

 * Giusep Nay, president of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 2005–2006, 1988–2006
 * Alois Pfister, member of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland
 * Antonin Gregory Scalia, U.S. Justice
 * Luzius Wildhaber, Swiss judge; first President of the European Court of Human Rights

Media

 * Andrea Jansen, journalist, Swiss National Television

Arts

 * Three of the members of the medieval ensemble Freiburger Spielleyt are graduates of the university's early music program.

Royalty

 * Karl Friedrich, Prince of Hohenzollern

title: University of Fribourg


text:
Saint James Parish

Saint James Parish may refer to:

 * Saint James Parish, Barbados
 * Saint James Parish, Jamaica
 * Saint James Parish, New Brunswick, Canada
 * St. James Parish, Louisiana, U.S.
 * Parish of St James, Cumberland, New South Wales, Australia
 * Westminster St James, or St. James Parish, London, UK

title: Saint James Parish


text:
Operation Plunder

Operation Plunder was a military operation to cross the Rhine on the night of 23 March 1945, launched by the 21st Army Group under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. The crossing of the river was at Rees, Wesel, and south of the river Lippe by the British Second Army under Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey, and the United States Ninth Army under Lieutenant General William H. Simpson.

The Battle of the Rhine was crucial for the advancement of the Allied advance into Germany, and was planned by Monty (the king of set-piece operations) as a three-army assault, including an airborne assault, a five-thousand-gun artillery barrage, and Anglo-American bombers. Thousands of tons of supplies were brought forward including huge amounts of bridging equipment.

The First Allied Airborne Army conducted Operation Varsity on the east bank of the Rhine in support of Operation Plunder, consisting of U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps, the British 6th, and the U.S. 17th Airborne Divisions.

Operation Grenade in February by Simpson's Ninth Army and Crerar's Canadians was also expected to prepare the ground.

Preparations such as accumulation of supplies, road construction, and the transport of 36 Royal Navy landing craft, were hidden by a massive smoke screen from 16 March. The operation commenced on the night of 23 March 1945. It included the Varsity parachute and glider landings near Wesel, and Operation Archway, by the Special Air Service.

Battle
Four thousand Allied guns fired for four hours during the opening bombardment. British bombers contributed with attacks on Wesel during the day and night of 23 March 1945.

On the night of 23 March, companies E and C of the 17th Armored Engineer Battalion, part of the U.S. 2nd Armored Division, constructed treadway rafts to prepare the crossing of the Rhine about five kilometers south of Wesel. Bridge construction started at 9:45 a.m. and by 4:00 p.m. the first truck crossed the floating pontoon bridge. Over 1152 ft of M2 treadway and 93 pneumatic floats were laid in the six hours and fifteen minute construction project, a record setting for the size of the bridge. It took twenty-five 2$1/2$ ton GMC CCKW trucks to transport the bridge parts to the construction site, part of the Red Ball Express.

Three Allied formations made the initial assault: the British XII Corps and XXX Corps and the U.S. XVI Corps. The British 79th Armoured Division—under Major General Percy Hobart—had been at the front of the Normandy landings and provided invaluable help in subsequent operations with specially adapted armored vehicles (known as Hobart's Funnies). One "funny" was the LVT-2 "Buffalo" operated by the 4th Royal Tank Regiment, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Alan Jolly, an armed and armoured amphibious tracked personnel or cargo transporter, which was able to cross soft and flooded ground. These were the vehicles for the spearhead infantry.

The first part of Plunder within the framework of XXX Corp's Operation Turnscrew was initiated by the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division, led by the 7th Battalion, Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of 154th Brigade at 21:00 on 23 March, near Rees, followed by the 7th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (also of 154th Brigade). At 02:00 on 24 March, the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division landed between Wesel and Rees. At first, there was no opposition, but later they ran into determined resistance from machine-gun nests. On the same day the 51st Division's commander, Major-General Tom Rennie, was killed by mortar fire. The British 1st Commando Brigade entered Wesel.

The U.S. 30th Infantry Division landed south of Wesel. The local resistance had been broken by artillery and air bombardment. Subsequently, the U.S. 79th Infantry Division also landed. American casualties were minimal. German resistance to the British landings continued with some effect, and there were armored counter-attacks. Landings continued, however, including tanks and other heavy equipment. U.S. forces had a bridge across by the evening of 24 March.

Operation Varsity started at 10:00 on 24 March, to disrupt enemy communications. Despite heavy resistance to the airdrops and afterward, the airborne troops made progress and repelled counterattacks. The hard lessons of Operation Market Garden were applied. In the afternoon, the 15th (Scottish) Division linked up with both airborne divisions.

Fierce German resistance continued around Bienen, north of Rees, where the entire 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade was needed to relieve the Black Watch. The bridgehead was firmly established, however, and Allied advantages in numbers and equipment were applied. By 27 March, the bridgehead was 35 mi wide and 20 mi deep.

Impact on German forces and command
The Allied operation was opposed by the German 1st Parachute Army, commanded by General Alfred Schlemm, a part of Army Group H. Although this formation was considered to be the most effective German force in the area, it was severely depleted from its previous action in the Battle of the Reichswald. Unable to withstand Allied pressure, the 1st Parachute Army withdrew northeast toward Hamburg and Bremen, leaving a gap between it and the 15th Army in the Ruhr.

Joseph Goebbels was well aware of Plunder's potential impact from the beginning. On 24 March, he began his diary entry with, "The situation in the West has entered an extraordinarily critical, ostensibly almost deadly, phase." He went on to note the crossing of the Rhine on a broad front, and foresaw Allied attempts to encircle the Ruhr industrial heartland.

On 27 March, command of the 1st Parachute Army was passed to General Günther Blumentritt, because Schlemm had been wounded. Blumentritt and his superior, Generaloberst Johannes Blaskowitz, both recognised that the situation was lost. The army's front was incomplete, there were no reserves, weak artillery, no air support and few tanks. Communications were weak, indeed, one corps was never contacted. The reinforcements were so poor that the generals decided against using them, to avoid needless casualties.

Although Blumentritt had strict orders from Supreme Command to hold and fight, from 1 April, he managed a withdrawal with minimal casualties, eventually withdrawing beyond the Dortmund-Ems Canal to the Teutoburg Forest. Within a week of the start of Plunder, the Allies had taken 30,000 prisoners of war north of the Ruhr.

Winston Churchill
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was present at Field Marshal Montgomery's headquarters near Venlo on the eve of Plunder. Subsequently, Churchill and Montgomery watched the Varsity air landings on 24 March.

The next day, 25 March, Churchill and Montgomery visited General Dwight D. Eisenhower′s headquarters. After lunch and a briefing, the party went to a sandbagged house overlooking the Rhine and a quiet, undefended stretch of the German-held riverbank. After Eisenhower's departure, Churchill, Montgomery, and a party of U.S. commanders and armed guards took a LCVP landing craft and landed for 30 minutes in enemy territory, without challenge. They next visited the destroyed railway bridge at Wesel, departing when German artillery appeared to target them.

Military rivalries
The Plunder crossings in the third week of March were planned as the primary assault across the Rhine, but at the Yalta Conference in early February 1945, it was decided to add another crossing to the south of the Ruhr. The additional crossing was intended to draw off any concentration of forces in opposition to Plunder. Two earlier crossings actually happened.

On 7 March, U.S. troops unexpectedly captured the Ludendorff Bridge as the Battle of Remagen. Within the next 10 days six divisions and 25,000 troops established a bridgehead on the eastern side of the Rhine.

On 22 March, General George S. Patton sent his Third Army across the Rhine, at Nierstein, to form another bridgehead. His superior, General Omar Bradley, released news of this crossing to the press "at a time calculated to take some of the lustre from the news of Montgomery′s crossing". Bradley later remembered that Patton had strongly urged the announcement saying "I want the world to know that Third Army made it before Monty starts across".

In culture

 * "Crossing the Rhine", Episode 8 of The Lost Evidence, The History Channel, UK, 2004.
 * Heinz Bosch, Wilhelm Haas: Der Krieg am Niederrhein, Kreis Kleve, 1976 (German).
 * "World War II": season 5, episode 8 of Drunk History.

title: Operation Plunder


text:
Talk:Parliament of Åland

This page is unneccessary as the topic well could be covered in the article on Government of Åland. A redirect to that page, and a bolded mentioning of Lagtinget in that article's first paragraph, might be a good idea. However, this idea depends on the understanding of "government" which by the article Government of Åland currently is defined to exclude the Parliament. --Ruhrjung 17:10, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Shouldn't Finnish institutions be referred to in Finnish or bilingual? Koczy (talk) 20:15, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Reorganising subnational legislature categories
This article is listed under Category:Dependency legislatures. It is proposed to either merge this category with Category:Legislatures of subnational entities by reassigning the categories OR to make it a subcategory of Legislatures of subnational entities. To contribute to the discussion, please go to: Category talk:Dependency legislatures Adz 08:20, 2 November 2005 (UTC) (In light of the comment above, given that there are so many articles about subnational legislatures, i don't think that this article should be merged) Adz 08:20, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Parliament of Åland


text:
Dow Mossman

Dow Mossman (born 1943 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) is an American writer, known for his novel The Stones of Summer.

Life and career
Dow Mossman studied at Coe College for two years, finished college at the University of Iowa and received his Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1969.

His novel The Stones of Summer was published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1972 and Popular Library a year later. Following the publication of the novel, Mossman was mentally exhausted and spent several months in an Iowa sanitorium. The novel soon went out of print. One element of the novel is poems and letters from Vietnam sent by Marine officer Dan Guenther (U.of Iowa, MFA, 1973), who later published the novels China Wind (Ivy, 1990) and Dodge City Blues (Redburn Press, 2007).

Stone Reader
In 2002, Mossman was the subject of the documentary film Stone Reader by Mark Moskowitz, which chronicled the director's attempt to resuscitate the acclaimed book and speak to its seemingly vanished author.

The film shows Mossman currently living in the home he grew up in, which is filled with books. According to the film, Mossman writes on the porch, and is currently working on a book based on notes he has taken from watching hundreds of old movies. In addition to that book, he is also working on a book of poetry.

Prior to Stone Reader, Mossman had been employed for 19 years as a welder, before quitting his job to look after his aging mother until her death, after which he returned to work as a paper bundler for the local newspaper. After the film's release, The Stones of Summer was re-published by Barnes & Noble. He is now semi-retired.

External sources

 * New York Times (February 12, 2003) Recounting Obsession With a 1972 Author. [Review, "The Stone Reader"].
 * NPR (June 17, 2003) "The Stone Reader" [Interview, "The Stone Reader"].
 * The Observer (August 3, 2003). On the trail of a lost genius. [Review, "The Stone Reader"].

title: Dow Mossman


text:
The Question (The Slackers album)

The Question is an album by the Slackers. It was released on November 20, 1998 (see 1998 in music), on Hellcat Records. The record is dedicated to Tommy McCook and Dick Qualiana.

Track listing
All songs written by Vic Ruggiero, except where noted.
 * 1) "Manuel"  – 2:42
 * 2) "Knowing"  – 2:53
 * 3) "Have the Time"  – 3:07
 * 4) "And I Wonder?"  (Dave Hillyard, Ruggiero) – 3:49
 * 5) "No More Crying"  – 4:32
 * 6) "Feed My Girl" (Marcus Geard, Marq Lyn)  – 3:39
 * 7) "Mountainside"  (Glen Pine) – 2:47
 * 8) "The Mummy"  – 3:21
 * 9) "Motor City"  (Hillyard, Ruggerio) – 4:00
 * 10) "Power"  (Hillyard, Ruggerio, Lyn) – 4:26
 * 11) "Keep Him Away"  – 2:49
 * 12) "The Question"  – 3:59
 * 13) "The Question (Version)"  – 4:04
 * 14) "Face in My Crowd"  (Hillyard, Ruggerio) – 3:13
 * 15) "Do You Know"  (Luis Zuluaga) – 3:10
 * 16) "Yes It's True"  – 4:16
 * 17) "Alone Again"  – 3:02
 * 18) "Make Me Smile"  (T.J. Scanlon) – 4:20
 * 19) "No Love"  (Hillyard) – 3:53

title: The Question (The Slackers album)


text:
David Norris

David Norris may refer to:

Sports

 * David Norris (diver) (1920–1972), Australian diver
 * Dave Norris (athlete) (born 1939), New Zealand athlete
 * David Norris (cricketer) (born 1946), English cricketer
 * David Norris (speedway rider) (born 1972), former British international speedway rider
 * David Norris (footballer) (born 1981), English footballer
 * Bud Norris or David Norris (born 1985), American baseball player
 * David Norris (skier) (born 1990), American cross country skier in the 2019–20 Tour de Ski

Other people

 * David Norris (Royal Navy officer) (1875–1937), British admiral
 * David Norris (politician) (born 1944), Irish senator, civil rights activist, James Joyce scholar and former presidential candidate
 * David Owen Norris (born 1953), British pianist and broadcaster
 * David Norris, convicted of the murder of Stephen Lawrence
 * David Norris, protagonist in The Adjustment Bureau

title: David Norris