I searched for this in Google Books, and I found several books that quote a couple of lines, but nothing more than that. Sometimes they called it an "old song."


Variations include:

"Ireland was a nation when…"
"…when England's broken up."
"…when England's buggered up."
"…when England's beggared up." (I assume that's a euphemism.)

"Ireland was Ireland when England was not much,
And Ireland will be Ireland when England is Dutch." (from 1914)