Marian,

Thats an Unapproved Road - not an Unimproved one.

Unnaproved Roads were (probably still are) small roads that go across the border between the Republic of Ireland (Often known as the South) and Northern Ireland (The North) but did not have an offricial customs post on them, so you weren't supposed to use them for commercial purposes. A lot of these crossings were blown up (cratered) by northern security forces during the height of the 'troubles' in the North. A lot of these craters are being filled in now, I gather, which must be some sort of improvement.

Basically the song as I understand it is about living in a situation where there is enmity between 'them' and 'us', in this case them are the Unionist/Loyalist community in Northern Ireland and 'Us' are the Nationalist/Republican community in the rest of the island. There has not been much dialogue between these two groups for many years. Things are starting to improve now I hope, but whn you see things like what was happening to the School girls in Ardoyne in Belfast up to recently, you have to wonder.

While this is the main theme of the song, there is a wider theme about groups of people who are traditional enemies getting together and discussing their differences, or more importantly their similarities, which are usually far more important. There is, for example, a traditional rivalry between people who live North of the Liffey in Dublin and those in the suposedly more affluent "South Side". Mostly this is just a bit of fun, but occasionally you get people who take it seriously.

In America you hear about people living on the wrong side of the tracks. Its the same idea.

The ideas in this song are similar to others like 'Both Sides of the Tweed' which refers to the traditional enemies the English and the Scots celebrating the humanity that unites them rather than what divides them.