I think this song is about American-born (or raised in America at the least) Irishman Jim Dwyer whose corpse is getting sent back to Ireland to be buried with his family and ancestors. A young man is describing Jim and the procession of his funeral, saying how all the Irish uncles and relatives were recounting why he and his family left the clan and why Ireland was so great.
The first chorus seems to be the goodbye of dead Jim Dwyer to his home, America. Although his relatives claim he's an Irishman, he always loved America and is sad to leave (metaphorically, of course; he's dead).
In America, the narrator recounts, Jim Dwyer was a boxer who got in to many fights. (I possibly considered him being a cop too, bc that was a common profession of Irish immigrants at the time.) because he wasn't involved in drugs and trouble and the such, the IRA thought he would be a great soldier and asked him to fight the Brits in the war, where he met his untimely death. He became very patriotic for Ireland (hence "slainte joe and a Erin go") but he still knew his home was America, despite all his deep rooted traditions ("calling of the rosary"). But he'll never reach America again bc he died which is his tragedy.
To me the last verse takes a huge turn. The narrator now leaves his homeland of Ireland to finish Jim Dwyer's Irish legacy. In the same way Jim loved America, the narrator loves Ireland and bids it goodbye. He swears that he'll come back to his homeland after he leaves, compared to how Jim Dwyer never did. He says his goodbyes to his family and to Jim, who he's going back to America for because he wants to experience the freedom of the USA that Jim Dwyer so often talked about.
I think this song is about American-born (or raised in America at the least) Irishman Jim Dwyer whose corpse is getting sent back to Ireland to be buried with his family and ancestors. A young man is describing Jim and the procession of his funeral, saying how all the Irish uncles and relatives were recounting why he and his family left the clan and why Ireland was so great.
The first chorus seems to be the goodbye of dead Jim Dwyer to his home, America. Although his relatives claim he's an Irishman, he always loved America and is sad to leave (metaphorically, of course; he's dead).
In America, the narrator recounts, Jim Dwyer was a boxer who got in to many fights. (I possibly considered him being a cop too, bc that was a common profession of Irish immigrants at the time.) because he wasn't involved in drugs and trouble and the such, the IRA thought he would be a great soldier and asked him to fight the Brits in the war, where he met his untimely death. He became very patriotic for Ireland (hence "slainte joe and a Erin go") but he still knew his home was America, despite all his deep rooted traditions ("calling of the rosary"). But he'll never reach America again bc he died which is his tragedy.
To me the last verse takes a huge turn. The narrator now leaves his homeland of Ireland to finish Jim Dwyer's Irish legacy. In the same way Jim loved America, the narrator loves Ireland and bids it goodbye. He swears that he'll come back to his homeland after he leaves, compared to how Jim Dwyer never did. He says his goodbyes to his family and to Jim, who he's going back to America for because he wants to experience the freedom of the USA that Jim Dwyer so often talked about.