Jonathon Lighter's point about reception is well made though I think it's fair to say that everyone's impression is a kind of reception. However, as a scout, though protestant, I sang it with others at campfires and it was always apprehended as lampooning extreme protestant attitudes. In Youth Hostels where a broad mixture of of Northern and Southern Irish society gathered, we sang it and had the same imterpretation. But that was sometime between 1958 and 1968. Since then sensitivities have hardened. My view is that when writtsn, it was satire and this persisted in my circles until the beginning of the troubles. After that, it's interpretation became politicised in Ireland; elsewhere it doesn't matter.