I have my doubts that the 'Tom Ashe' bit was part of the original song.

To the best of my knowledge Tom Ashe died in a raid in a place in Couty Meath now known as Ashebourne. This happened during the Easter Rising in 1916.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the first time the green white and orange flag ("The flag of Sinn Fein") was unfurled was during the rising also. If this is the case I doubt if a sixteen year old girl in Tipp would have had one to wear. I am open to correction on any of this.

There seems to be a big leap between the soldier riding off on his machine and the girl hearing of the death. I think the verse was added in later for political effect. Of course its also a possibility that the original line was Tomás which is simply the Gaelic for Thomas - could have been a local person in Tipperary. I'm not aware of any links between Tom Ashe and Tipperary.