Certainly Newman satirizes the brute and savage conquest of the Canary Islands. Irony is evident in the broad and amateurish explanation for their name. Actually the Guanches were conquered and these were said to worship dogs. Coincidentally Canary derives from "Canaria" meaning dogs". Following, Newman uses irony again saying there are no more Portuguese there. Now the Canary Islands pertain to Spain because coincidentally they conquered them. The song ends more burlesque and ironic than before saying "There on the horizon is the possibility that some bug from out of Africa might come for you and me destroying everything in its path from sea to shinning sea like the great nations of Europe in the 16th century". Newman suggests that now dark skinned people from Africa will do the same that Europeans did, but he is obviously being sarcastic. He does not think in any way that they will do it, but that is his way of mocking both easter and western world.
Possibly the beginning of the song is not ironic because it sets up the context. Europeans gathered on the shore after they all conquered and dominated what they could and then it was time for them to look West. This could be wrong because even "West" is a relative term. It could also be "East".
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