Reception
"Mothers of the Disappeared" was favourably received by critics. Steve Morse of The Boston Globe called the song "powerful" and described the backing vocals as tender and choirlike. Don McLeese of the Chicago Sun-Times described it as a "hymn to human rights". Adrian Thrills of NME called it "a simple, plaintive lament of stunning beauty and sadness". Nicholas Jennings of Maclean's felt that it was The Joshua Tree's "most topical song". Music journalist Andrew Mueller felt the track was a "wilfully downbeat finale". In Rolling Stone, Steve Pond said "'Mothers of the Disappeared' is built around desolate images of loss, but the setting is soothing and restorative—music of great sadness but also of unutterable compassion, acceptance and calm." Lennox Samuels of The Dallas Morning News stated that there was "an ineffable sadness in Bono's vocals and images where 'Night hangs like a prisoner / Stretched over black and blue' ", calling it "a moving tribute" to people around the world who had lost loved ones to warfare and conflict. He added "hat's remarkable about the song is that despite the intrinsic pain, it remains eerily cleansing. Even in the midst of decay and excess and horror, Bono can find hope and absolution." In 2006 Bono described it as "a beautiful end to the album", saying, "That song means as much to me as any of the songs on that album, it's right up there for me," and noting that it is a song "I'm very proud of to this day."
Barbara Jaeger of The Bergen Record likened "Mothers of the Disappeared" to "New Year's Day" and "Pride (In the Name of Love)", stating that the band used all three to "stir political consciousness and to urge social commitment." Thirteen years later, Ryan Jones, in his review of U2's 2000 album All That You Can't Leave Behind for the same publication, said the song "Peace on Earth" contained echoes of "Mothers of the Disappeared" in its lyrics and the tone of the instrumental prelude. In reviewing the group's 2009 album No Line on the Horizon, Mueller said the closing "Cedars of Lebanon" "maintains this essentially optimistic group's counter-intuitive tradition of ending their albums with rueful comedowns", likening it to "Mothers of the Disappeared". McLeese believed that the song had its roots in "the folklike purity of traditional Irish music". According to Luerssen the song is "notorious" in Central and South America, and it is often "played as an act of defiance" by the Madres. Art for Amnesty cited the song, and the effect it had in spreading Amnesty International's human rights message, as one of the reasons why U2 were awarded the Ambassador of Conscience Award by the organization in 2005.
Reflecting on the applause given to the Madres during the PopMart concert in Buenos Aires, the U2 magazine Propaganda called the result "about the most moving thing I've ever seen on a rock stage. It was one of those ideas that really could have gone either way, but the obvious empathy of the audience towards these women made it an unforgettable moment." Following the televised concert in Chile, Bono said "it was amazing and confounding to discover that on our most 'pop' of tours some of the best shows were in political hotspots like Santiago, Sarajevo, Tel Aviv ... anywhere music meant more than entertainment". He added "to be able to address General Pinochet from the stage on live television in Chile and say, 'Give the dead back to the living. Please, General Pinochet, tell these women where the bones of their sons and daughters are.' That was an extraordinary moment ... certainly in my life and U2's." When asked if the negative reaction from some of the audience had disappointed the band Bono said it had not, stating "it's proof to me that a rock 'n' roll audience are not lemmings.... If they don't agree with you, they will let you know — but that doesn't mean they're not fans.... I was flattered that we weren't just playing to people who agreed with us." U2's performance was later credited with inspiring a protest in the Chilean Parliament against Pinochet, who was in the process of becoming a Senator for life after relinquishing his position as head of the armed forces. The opposition party brought in the Madres, who again held pictures of their disappeared children and asked for information on the location of their bodies.
"Mothers of the Disappeared" has been covered several times. The Vitamin String Quartet included it on their 2004 tribute album The String Quartet Tribute to U2's The Joshua Tree. Paddy Casey recorded a version for the tsunami relief album Even Better Than the Real Thing Vol. 3 in 2005.
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