Which U2 song was inspired by the 1984 miners’ strike in the United Kingdom?

U2’s song “Red Hill Mining Town” was inspired by the 1984 miners’ strike in the United Kingdom. The song appeared on The Joshua Tree, the band’s 1987 album, and uses the collapse of a mining community as its emotional and social setting.

The miners’ strike began after the National Coal Board announced plans to close numerous coal mines. The year-long dispute became one of the most significant industrial conflicts in modern British history, dividing communities and bringing policing, employment, and regional decline into sharp public focus. Bono wrote the song after reading about the strike and its effects on families.

“Red Hill Mining Town” was not originally released as a standard single from the album, although U2 later performed it during the 2017 Joshua Tree anniversary tour. It is sometimes confused with the band’s explicitly political songs about Northern Ireland, such as “Sunday Bloody Sunday”; its subject is instead the British mining crisis and its human cost.