Kearney was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, popularly known as the Fenians. He wrote the song at about the time of the 1916 Rising, referring back to the earlier Fenian Rising of 1867. It evokes the memory of the freedom-fighters of the previous generation ("strong, manly forms...eyes with hope gleaming"), as recalled by an old woman "down by the glenside". It is effectively a call to arms for a generation of Irishmen accustomed to political nationalism.