So someone writes a song that is (arguably) anti-Union, but expresses this ironically, so that that ostensibly it is pro-union. And people who are pro-union choose to take it at face value and use as a pro-union song, with the very elements in the song which might have been meant satirically becoming a way of making it more accessible, with the self-mockery undercutting the damaging implication that the left lacks a sense of fun.

Irony has many levels, but maybe "layers" is a better term, like an onion.

Is The Wild Rover more correctly classified as a temperance song or a drinking song. Is The Ould Orange Flute Green or Orange? Is The Patriot Game pro the gun or agin it?