The lyrics make references to the history of Irish nationalism, and the conflicts of the British Army against opponents with inferior weaponry: "Come tell us how you slew them poor Arabs two by two / Like the Zulus, they had spears and bows and arrows". The lyrics reference the disdain by his neighbours (saying "sneers and jeers that you loudly let us hear"), to the execution of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, and to the fall of the Irish nationalist political leader, Charles Stuart Parnell.