I just heard this song for the first time. Its simple yet very powerful, like a dream. It tells a plain story, someone left, but what of the horse? On one hand -- a horse is a horse, but they are also mystical, and there's the winged horse, where the 'claw' could mean bird-like feet as the horse takes flight.

I would imagine Mr. McCarthy meant it as a fairly simple, a vision more than a story, a dream of a woman riding off into the horizon or sky, and leaving a simple empty space on the bed. A metaphor like this means many things to many people and nothing at all, which makes it a very fine song.

No Danny Boy(ishnes) at all. Danny Boy (English lyrics) just tries to pull cheap tears. The melody is old, a different song altogether which I've heard sung in Irish by Diedre N' Flynn I believe. Its a fine old Celtic tune. It was a nostalgic song about missing a place.