Sunday Bloody Sunday

The Edge wrote the riff and a rough lyric in 1982, and Bono reworked the words. It was recorded between September and November 1982 at Windmill Lane with Steve Lillywhite, and issued as a single in the Netherlands and West Germany on 21 March 1983. The lyric refers to the Bloody Sundays of 1972 and 1920 without being about either. Mullen said the real battle is people dying.

Its chart record includes number 3 in the Netherlands in 1985 and number 7 on the US Mainstream Rock chart in 1983. There is no original video, and the clip uses footage from Red Rocks on 5 June 1983, directed by Gavin Taylor, with Bono carrying a white flag.

Live

It was first played in December 1982 in Glasgow on the Pre-War Tour. In Belfast Bono told the crowd it was not a rebel song. On 8 November 1987 at McNichols Arena in Denver he answered that day's Enniskillen bombing from the stage, and the performance appears on Rattle and Hum.