There used to be a term for black West Indians in London -"Toasted Irishmen". I don't know if it's ever used today. I was quite pleased with it - it identified being Irish as being not eligible to be included within the camp of the white racists. And that's how I'd sooner have it. (It didn't mean and it doesn't means that you don't get Irish racists, sadly - but it helped to define them for some people anyway as a kind of traitor to what being Irish is about.)

Some words are clearly intended as insulting, they've taken on that character over the years. I not at all sure thta that "spade" falls in that category any more than "black" - though of course in the mouth of a racist any term can be loaded with venom. Even something as innocuous as "cousins" or "friends" can be used that way. And of course at different times and places the same word carries different baggage, and Christie Moore isn't singing in the same part of the world as Jerry (well he is some of the time, but only in passing as it were.)