The song, as originally written, is about a Scotsman stopping by the grave of a casualty of the Great War and musing on the circumstances of his death. Although the soldier's surname is of Irish origin, he could have come from anywhere, and the narrator postulates a military funeral by a Scottish Regiment. Although this soldier died in a specific time and place, the song expands to include all wars. What later interpreters (and misinterpreters) have done to it is another business entirely.