Hello all, OP here...

Wow, didn't think this question would open up such a can of worms! For the record, I am a studying Irish and I obtained the lyrics from Martin Dardis's website ; Martin is from Co. Dublin and included the Irish lyrics alongside the English ones for this particular song. The lyrics in Irish are actually very close to the English meaning. I have found that studying songs in a language help me to learn that language more easily; it seems like some others here have had a similar experience.

In retrospect, I probably should have asked if anyone knows where I might be able to find an audio recording of the song in Irish...

Thank you-