Daragh Keany: Guess what? Zombie is just a song. I belted it out and I’d do it again.

I fully expected the euphoria of the previous nights win to sink in as texts and WhatsApps flooded in. I also fully expected the horrendous hangover considering I was drinking outside Corcoran’s Bar until 4am.

But I had absolute zero expectations to find a series of tweets from politicians north of the border and woke snowflakes south of the border (all of whom seem to have a tricolour in their bio) claiming that Irish rugby fans let the country down by belting out Zombie by The Cranberries.

Apparently, it is anti-IRA or anti-Peace process or anti-Ireland or something.

I don’t really know to be honest because the message was completely lost in the sheer confusion over the fact that the song is offensive to someone somewhere because of their nonsensical take on the lyrics. A confusion that wasn’t sparked decades ago when it first got released by the way.

But now that the chaps sing it at the egg ball, the great offended of the country are up in arms. They seem to forget that it is one of the few all-island sports too by the way, that honours all religions and backgrounds through the flag and the anthems.

On the final whistle in Stade de France I sang it. I sang it loud. And I sang it proud. I may have even sang it with more than one or two tears in my eyes (crowds do it for me, not gonna lie).

But can I tell you something for free? And I know you don’t want to hear this…but not one of the 50,000 Irish fans in the stadium that night, having watched an epic game that we won, thought to themselves on the final whistle… ‘Jesus, do you know what this occasion needs right now? A song that will piss off a few snowflakes back home!’

Not one single fan thought to themselves that this was going to offend a single person anywhere on the planet. And I hate to break it to you…we didn’t think for one second that we were doing anything wrong. Because guess what? We weren’t.

The stadium’s PA system could have belted out Barbie Girl or Macarena after that match I would have joined in. Okay, so there may not have been as many tears because it is not as haunting a song. But I would still have woken up hoarse the next morning from the previous night’s celebrations.

Read my next sentence carefully… IT IS JUST A SONG.

It isn’t even my favourite Cranberries song for that matter. Linger and Dreams would be higher up on my Spotify list.

And can we all agree that it is better than Freed From Desire, which threatened to infiltrate the Irish Rugby set up last March when we beat England in the Grand Slam match at The Aviva?

Are we supposed to hand out lyrics sheets and a list of songs that can or can’t be sung after games? Have we come to this?

I hope Ireland win against Scotland next week and I hope Zombie is played on full volume once more after the final whistle because if you see the clips of it as the speaker system was muted and the fans carried on singing you will know that it signified a great swell of emotion by fans who had forked out a fortune to be there and were rightly on a high after such an incredible game.

If Zombie isn’t played it will be a win for the great offended. Not for the Protestants or the Catholics.

For the snowflakes who can’t see past the wild notion that a song may actually just be played and sung and enjoyed by people who don’t overthink the lyrics. And who certainly have no intention of offending anyone.