While Tom Lewis is credited with the lyrics to this fine song, the chorus is based on older Irish verses. James Joyce jotted the following note while writing Ulysees:
May the God above
Send down a dove
With teeth as sharp as razors
To slit the throats
Of the English dogs
That hanged our Irish leaders.
This in turn is based on an anti-politician Irish toast that first appeared in a letter to The Bristol Mercury, December 7, 1830:
May God above,
send down his love,
With swords as sharp as sickles,
To cut the throats of gentlefolks,
Who grudge poor men their victuals!!!
According to the annotated notes of Joyce, there are variants with dove replacing love as early as 1852.
Various other songs have used the same title, including Gordon Bok's tune on All Shall Be Well Again.