 The theme of the song is Republican "unfinished business" from the 1920s – the cause of the dead father is passed on to his son.This is specifically related to the Irish Civil War of 1922 and to the subsequent IRA, which refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of either the Irish Free State or Northern Ireland states created at that time.Shortly after the narrator's father marries his mother comes the " and Treaty and the parting of the ways" (split in the IRA).