The Cheltenham Gold Cup is held annually at Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire. Traditionally a lot of Irish people travel over for this horse race. Knowing the Cheltenham and Gloucester area well, Steve had heard lots of stories about this Irish invasion, and this song contains aspects of some of them. The popularity of this song is continuous - in fact it is often thought to be a traditional song - and has found it's way into many singer's repertoire.