Song · Simple Minds
“Belfast Child” by Simple Minds
From the EP Ballad of the Streets EP (1989)
“Belfast Child” by Simple Minds appears on 2 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1989 and 1990. It was first released in 1989 on the EP Ballad of the Streets EP. Its best result is #8 on the Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 1989. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #91 alternative song of 1989 and #5,733 alternative song of all time.
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"Belfast Child" opened Simple Minds' Ballad of the Streets EP in 1989, sharing the record with "Mandela Day" and "Biko", and it's the band at their most solemn: new words from Jim Kerr set to the old Irish folk tune "She Moved Through the Fair". Kerr first heard that melody a few days after the Enniskillen bombing, sickened like everyone by the pictures, and the song's second half reaches out to people in Northern Ireland who had lost family and friends, offering questions about the madness rather than answers.
Trevor Horn and Stephen Lipson produced, and Simple Minds arranged the traditional tune themselves. It went all the way to number one in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands, and Q gave it five stars.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 8 | Studio Brussel Flanders, Belgium | Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 1989 | 30 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 183 | Live 105 | Live 105 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1990) | 299 |
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