IRELAND rugby union fans have gone viral in the past few weeks for singing ‘Zombie’ a song dedicated by The Cranberries to two Warrington school boys.

Johnathan Ball and Tim Parry died in the IRA bombing of Warrington 30 years ago, with The Cranberries writing Zombie in their honour.

The song calls for an end to war amidst the deaths of the two young boys who were just three and 12 years old respectively.

READ MORE: Tim Parry's best friend speaks of their 'special bond' together

‘Zombie’ has seen a resurgence in recent years, with Munster adopting the song following the unexpected death of singer Dolores O’Riordan in 2018.

This has since spread from the Irish regional side to the Irish national team, with each win at this year’s Rugby World Cup being accompanied by a roaring rendition of ‘Zombie’ by fans of the number one side in the world.

The song being adopted as an unofficial anthem has seen criticism from political groups in Ireland, however, due to the political nature of the song.

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, however, has argued against this debate, stating he would sing it if he was in France for the matches.

Mr Varadkar said: “'Zombie is a great Munster rugby song. Dolores was from Limerick, it's been sung at rugby matches for a very long time.

“We had a similar debate around the Wolfe Tones [Irish rebel music band] and what I said at the time, and I'll say it now, is I think sometimes people read too much into the songs that people sing.

“I'm not sure all that many people are thinking about the politics of it.

“It's a good North-South [song] -- bear in mind this is a team that has support from both communities.

“I think it's a song that we can all sing comfortably... it's an anti-terrorism song. It's not a nationalist or unionist song in my view.”

Ireland play New Zealand on Saturday, October 14, at 8pm.

England will play Fiji for a place in the Semi-Finals on Sunday at 4pm, with Warrington-born scrum-half Alex Mitchell announced to be starting the game.