What ironies do you find in the mother’s assumptions in the poem as a whole? "Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley Randall

The major irony in this poem is the mother's assumptions
about safety.  The child asks if she may go down to march for civil rights, and the
mother responds with,

"No, baby, no, you may not go,

For the dogs are fierce and wild,
And clubs and hoses, guns and
jails
Aren't good for a little child."

The
mother, like any good mother, is deeply concerned for the safety of her child.  In order
to protect her precious child, she will only allow her child to go to what she imagines
is a "safe" place- the church.

The irony, therefore, is
that while the mother expects her child to be safe in the church, that is actually the
place where her child ends up dying when a KKK member placed a bomb in the church in
1963.