Have been laid to rust upon the green

• on the green always & ever → laid on the green ever & evermore → have been laid to rust upon the green
  • A first-draft version of Finnegans wake

• rust: (Dutch) rest → Dutch because of the Dutch House of Orange from which the hero of the Irish Protestants, William III (King Billy, William of Orange), came

• laid to rest: dead and buried → the Orange invaders have been laid to rest

• rust: iron oxide → rust turns iron orange

• rut: sexual intercourse among mammals → in this context, laid also has sexual overtones

• green: symbolic of Ireland's Catholic, Nationalist or Republican faction (especially in Ulster) → ALP is a Catholic

• green: a village green
  • there were wigs on the green: there was a public altercation; scuffles broke out
  • Ulysses 337.27: "there'd be wigs on the green"

• oranges ... upon the green: HCE, a Protestant, having sexual intercourse with his wife ALP, a Catholic

• Song of Solomon 1:16: "Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green."[1]

• Rust upon the Green: reference to the flag of Ireland, with green and orange bordering white.