Regarding the steam engine, I have also read that the occasion on which O'Connell said that the steam engine would be the making of future generations," was a speech when the first steam engine was introduced in Ireland (Dublin - Bray route). Maybe some people did think he meant it literally, but whoever composed this song seems to have had satiric intent.

O'Connell was reputed to have many illegitimate children around the countryside and his reputation in that regard is also said to have given inspiration to the song.

I don't know if everyone reading the Paddy Graber quotation will know that Barry Goldwater was a conservative US politician.