[4] One of U2's most overtly political songs, its lyrics describe the horror felt by an observer of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, mainly focusing on the 1972 Bloody Sunday incident in Derry where British troops shot and killed unarmed civil rights protesters.

While newlyweds Bono and Ali Hewson honeymooned in Jamaica, the Edge worked in Ireland on music for the band's upcoming album.

Following an argument with his girlfriend Aislinn O'Sullivan, and a period of doubt in his own song-writing abilities, the Edge—"feeling depressed... channelled [his] fear and frustration and self-loathing into a piece of music.

After Bono had reworked the lyrics, the band recorded the song at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin.

A chance meeting with Andy Newmark of Sly & the Family Stone – a drummer who used a click track religiously – changed Mullen's mind.

A local violinist, Steve Wickham, approached the Edge one morning at a bus stop and asked if U2 had any need for a violin on their next album.

Wickham spent half a day in the studio recording an electric violin track that became the final instrumental contribution to the song.

[11] As a promotional gimmick, U2 manager Paul McGuinness had made arrangements for the band to appear in the 1982 St. Patrick's Day parade.

However, he later found that there was a possibility that Bobby Sands, an IRA hunger striker who had starved to death the previous year, would be the parade's honorary marshal.

As they felt that the IRA's tactics were prolonging the fighting in Northern Ireland, McGuinness and the band members mutually decided they should withdraw from the parade.

McGuinness met with one of the parade's organizers in a New York bar to arrange the cancellation, and ended up in a heated debate about the IRA.

Like you talk about Northern Ireland, 'Sunday Bloody Sunday,' people sort of think, 'Oh, that time when 13 Catholics were shot by British soldiers'; that's not what the song is about.

[13] The song opens with a militaristic drumbeat and electric violin part; the aggressive snare drum rhythm closely resembles a beat used to keep a military band in step.

The distinctive drum sound was achieved by recording Mullen's drumwork at the base of a staircase, producing a more natural reverb.

Bono rewrote the Edge's initial lyrics, attempting to contrast the two events with Easter Sunday, but he has said that the band were too inexperienced at the time to fully realise that goal, noting that "it was a song whose eloquence lay in its harmonic power rather than its verbal strength.

"[10] Clayton, recalls that better judgment led to the removal of such a politically charged line, and that the song's "viewpoint became very humane and non-sectarian...which, is the only responsible position.

"[17] The chosen opening line, "I can't believe the news today" crystallises the prevailing response, especially among young people, to the violence in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s.

[17] In successive stanzas, the lyrics paraphrase religious texts from Matthew 10:35 ("mother's children; brothers, sisters torn apart"), Revelation 21:4 ("wipe your tears away"), and bring a twist to 1 Corinthians 15:32 ("we eat and drink while tomorrow they die", instead of "let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die").

Directed by Gavin Taylor, the video displays Bono's use of a white flag during performances of the song.

The video highlights the intensity and emotion felt by many audience members during U2's concerts, while the rainy, torch-lit setting in Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheatre further adds to the atmosphere.

In 2004, Rolling Stone cited the performance as one "50 Moments that Changed the History of Rock and Roll" and noted that "the sight of Bono singing the anti-violence anthem 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' while waving a white flag through crimson mist (created by a combination of wet weather, hot lights and the illumination of those crags) became the defining image of U2's warrior-rock spirit and—shown in heavy rotation on MTV—broke the band nationwide.

Some of the Edge's original lyrics explicitly spoke out against violent rebels, but they were omitted to protect the group.

"[5] Denise Sullivan commented for AllMusic that Mullen's opening drumwork "helps set the tone for the unforgiving, take-no-prisoners feel of the song, as well as for the rest of the album.

[7] It was first heard by a live audience in December 1982 in Glasgow, Scotland, on a twenty-one show "Pre-War Tour".

[7] The 1988 rockumentary Rattle and Hum includes a particularly renowned version of the song, recorded on 8 November 1987 at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver.

To leave them dying or crippled for life or dead under the rubble of a revolution that the majority of the people in my country don't want.

The Coexist symbol is trademarked in the United States by an LLP in Indiana,[31] and the original artwork was created in 2001 by a Polish artist.

[32] As with the 2001 shows, the Vertigo tour saw the song applied to subjects further afield than The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

As a result, the team opted to move the game to Percival Molson Stadium at McGill University.

The B-side on the single, "Endless Deep", is one of the few U2 songs that features bassist Adam Clayton singing.