A little background - if you (original poster) did not know it - the whole album ("By Gloucester Docks...") is a commentary on a doomed love affair that Ashley had with a married woman (named Pat we are told, in his authorised biography)... Pat's husband was Irish, and at one point had gone to Ireland to his family home, and she decided to go over there to see if she could "patch up the relationship"... Hence "To Ireland I made my way" sung by Polly Bolton, the female voice/protagonist on the record. Ashley: "I imagined her sailing. I saw the ship in my mind's eye, and classical legend came in and muses came in and sirens came in and all this stuff. So I wrote [this song] ... and then, a few months later, she said 'Oh no, I flew!' [laughs]."

- Tony