The struggles of Northern Ireland’s quest for peace are well documented. When the Belfast Agreement was passed (sometimes known as the Good Friday Peace Accord) guns were silent in northern Ireland and peace, an seemingly impossible dream, seemed to finally have been given a chance to thrive.
This was shattered on August 15, 1990 in the town of Omagh, which targeted shoppers and was planted by an extremist group known as the Real IRA. It was a severe blow to the Good Friday Peace Accord, at the time only a few months old. “Peace on Earth” is an angry and bitter response to the senseless violence and mass murder. Bono was listening to Irish radio that day and heard the names being read out of the 29 victims. They’re reading names out over the radio, all the folks the rest of us won’t get to know, Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann and Breda, their lives are bigger than any big idea. The spiritual references in the chorus reportedly refer to Bono’s failure to understand how a loving divinity could allow such atrocities.
The line “… hope and history won’t rhyme” is by Seamus Heaney, a Nobel Prize winning Irish Poet. Seamus Heaney is thanked in the liner notes.
Click here to download the guitar tab for Peace on earth
Heaven on Earth
We need it now
I’m sick of all of this
Hanging around
Sick of sorrow
Sick of pain
Sick of hearing again and again
That there’s gonna be
Peace on Earth
Where I grew up
There weren’t many trees
Where there was we’d tear them down
And use them on our enemies
They say that what you mock
Will surely overtake you
And you become a monster
So the monster will not break you
And it’s already gone too far
Who said that if you go in hard
You won’t get hurt
Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
Tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
‘Bout peace on Earth
No whos or whys
No-one cries like a mother cries
For peace on Earth
She never got to say goodbye
To see the colour in his eyes
Now he’s in the dirt
That’s peace on Earth
They’re reading names out over the radio
All the folks the rest of us won’t get to know
Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann, and Breda
Their lives are bigger, than any big idea
Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
To tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
‘Bout peace on Earth
Jesus this song you wrote
The words are sticking in my throat
Peace on Earth
Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won’t rhyme
So what’s it worth?
This peace on Earth
Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth
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