Balladeer you must be very young or extremely naive to ask this question. The political situation in Ireland has resulted in countless acrimonious threads here at Mudcat. Even a cursory knowledge of Irish history should show you that finding this easily available information on the net is preferable to once again opening not so old wounds here. I'm sorry to sound unkind, as you probably are quite young and have just discovered a powerful song, but some here have used openings like this in a very negative way.