Whilst most of 'The Gunner's Dream' is metaphor, and the rest of the album from which is comes is indirectly about the
Falklands war and sundry official post-WW2 conflicts, the line referring to an imaginary paradise where '
maniacs don't blow holes in
bandsmen by remote control' is a reference to the
IRA's nail-bombings at
Hyde Park (which was remote-controlled) and the bandstand at
Regent's Park on the 2nd of
August 1982.
The explosion at Hyde Park killed four cavalrymen and injured 22 assorted guards and civilians, whilst the one at Regent's Park killed six bandsmen and injured 28 people. Seven horses were also killed, pictures of which probably did more to repulse people than the thought of the human deaths.
The line about dead children probably refers to the Ballykelly bomb of December the 6th, 1982, in which a bar was blown up with the loss of 11 British soldiers and six civilians, including two children.