I have also heard of the connection to the potato famine (and no I will not call it the Great Hunger). The pale drooping maiden verse especially was supposed to describe the young Irish girls.

And as for what Big Red posted in 2002...it sounds like they took a verse from Swanee River and tacked it on to hard times..

Or was it Old Kentucky Home..
from memory..they hunt no more for the possum and the coon by the river the hill and the shore..they sing no more by the rising of the moon on the bench by the old cabin door..

No..it was Swaneee River. Well, it is not that similar I guess..mg