1972 No. 1 Hit Turned Ex-Beatle's Protest Into Radio's Most Banned

While John Lennon is most widely - and generally, most accurately - considered the political Beatle, many have forgotten that Paul McCartney kickstarted Wings with the most controversial debut of the Fab Four.

"Give Ireland Back to the Irish," the group's 1972 debut single, is as direct as its title suggests. The song was written by Paul, alongside his wife and bandmate Linda McCartney, as a response to the Bloody Sunday massacre that had occurred on January 30, just over two weeks before the single was released worldwide.

McCartney, who is of Irish descent, was personally horrified by the killing of 14 civilians at the hands of British troops in Derry, Northern Ireland - a sentiment shared by much of the British public at the end, especially in his home city of Liverpool, often jokingly referred to as Ireland's second capital.

The song, containing lyrics such as "Give Ireland back to the Irish / Don't make them have to take it away / Give Ireland back to the Irish / Make Ireland Irish today," directly called for a United Ireland, calling out McCartney's home country as an oppressive colonial state - something the former Beatle knew would be met with controversy upon UK release.

"From our point of view, it was the first time people questioned what we were doing in Ireland. It was so shocking. I wrote "Give Ireland Back to the Irish", we recorded it and I was promptly phoned by the Chairman of EMI, Sir Joseph Lockwood, explaining that they wouldn't release it," McCartney said (per Wingspan/The Paul McCartney Project).

"He thought it was too inflammatory. I told him that I felt strongly about it and they had to release it. He said, 'Well it'll be banned', and of course it was. I knew "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" wasn't an easy route, but it just seemed to me to be the time [to say something]."

Perhaps most controversially of all, the song was often interpreted as a pro-IRA song, calling for Irish Catholics to take arms and rise against colonial power, an allegation McCartney has always denied, but wore British objections to the songs as a badge of honor.

"Give Ireland Back to the Irish" was banned by the BBC and other British radio organizations. Despite this near-total commercial blackout, the song commanded a respectable #16 on the UK Singles Chart and #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. The protest anthem also topped the Spanish, and perhaps most appropriately of all, the Irish charts following its debut.

It would be inaccurate, however, to say the song was universally lauded by those who sympathised with Irish civil rights in the 1970s. McCartney, in 1972, was still struggling to shake off the "Cute Beatle" persona, as well as the public image of a square who aimed to clip the politically and socially right-on Lennon's wings to pursue his own creative and fiscal ambitions.

McCartney's own Wings, as appropriately named, were met with immediate public skepticism following the widely-held belief at the time that Paul broke up the Beatles, and the addition of his wife Linda as a musical partner only brought its own new wave of unfair criticism. In a less-than-flattering review of Wings' debut single, Bob Woffinden of NMEcalled it "self-conscious, awkward" in the mould of "Lennon's least successful diatribes".

Contemporary reviews of "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" are much kinder to the song, and McCartney's solo career as a whole, but few would perceive it to be radical in the same manner the BBC once did over 50 years ago, although Paul hasn't played the song in concert since its early release. However, Wings' debut single still has its place as a watershed moment for McCartney's burgeoning creative direction as a solo artist - while it may not have been a direction he stuck with in the long run, the ending of the Lennon-McCartney partnership gave him the space to experiment.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Apr 21, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 4:00 PM.