Brendan Behan was very fond of this song and sung it in several of his broadcasts. I seem to remember from one of his books that he thought the coolin was to do with the supression of the Irish language. I'm afraid this is only a hazy recollection of a book i read maybe five years ago - I rather think it was one of those books that he recited to a scribe in his later years.

I hope I have not muddied the waters, as my contribution seems not to concur with the rest, nevertheless I thought it might be worth mentioning

al