The father of one of the Warrington bombing victims has paid tribute to The Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan after learning she wrote a hit song about the 1993 attack.

Colin Parry and his wife Wendy's 13-year-old son Tim was one of two youngsters killed when the IRA detonated two bombs in Warrington town centre on March 20 that year.

And yesterday, after hearing of the sudden death of Cranberries singer O'Riordan they were surprised to discover that the their son's tragic death had inspired the band's most famous hit Zombie .

Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan wrote hit song Zombie about Colin Parry's son Tim who died in the Warrington bombing

Mr Parry, a well known peace campaigner who has an honorary degree from the University of Chester , told BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that he had been touched by the song's lyrics but did not realise their significance until after the singer's death.

"Only yesterday did I discover that her group, or she herself, had composed the song in memory of the event in Warrington in which my son Tim and young Jonathan Ball died,’ said Mr Parry on Tuesday morning.

"I was completely unaware what it was about. My wife came home from the police centre where she worked … I got the song up on my laptop, watched the band singing, saw Dolores and listened to the words.’

"The words are both majestic and also very real."

12-year-old Tim Parry and three-year-old Johnathan Ball who died in the Warrinton bombing on 20 March 1993

"The event at Warrington, like the many events that happened all over Ireland and Great Britain, affected families in a very real way and many people have become immune to the pain and suffering that so many people experienced during that armed campaign.

"To read the words written by an Irish band in such a compelling way was very, very powerful," he added.

Lyrics to the 1994 single Zombie

Another head hangs lowly

Child is slowly taken

And the violence, caused such silence

Who are we mistaken?

But you see, it's not me

It's not my family

In your head, in your head, they are fighting

With their tanks, and their bombs

And their bombs, and their guns

In your head, in your head they are crying