I Have just come on to this thread and I cannot believe that Patrick Kavanaghs two great books were not mentioned, Read TARRY FLYNN and The GREEN FOOL for an understanding of a brilliant writer and poet. Poor old Kavanagh had enough of the country yokel in him to be taken in by street wise Dublin city girls. He was a lonely man who had lingered too long on his Monaghan Farm and was never at ease with the urban way of life. The song surely spells this out without trying to phylophise every phrase. Slan Ard Mhacha.