I remember a guy singing this song at an IRA fundraiser in 1983 in a pub I used to frequent.
Back in the day they would often have a "hard man" sitting at the end of the bar taking contributions for the Cause. It was the times of Bobby Sands and the hunger strike and most of my friends who were working as bartenders were from Belfast. They were without exception not political but they knew enough to throw a twenty in the bucket and shut up.