Paul McCartney also made a contribution to the genre with his 1972 single " Give Ireland Back to the Irish " , which he wrote as a reaction to Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland on January 30 , 1972 . The song also faced an all-out ban in the UK , and has never been re-released or appeared on any Paul McCartney or Wings best-ofs . The same year McCartney 's former colleague John Lennon released two protest songs concerning the hardships of war-torn Northern Ireland : " Sunday Bloody Sunday " , written shortly after the 1972 massacre of Irish civil rights activists ( which differs from U2 's 1983 song of the same title in that it directly supports the Irish Republican cause and does not call for peace ) , and " The Luck Of The Irish " , both from his album '' Some Time in New York City '' ( 1972 )
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday (1972)
Protest song