The Galway Races


As I rode down to Galway Town
To seek for recreation
On the seventeenth of August
Me mind being elevated
There were multitudes assembled
With their tickets at the station
And me eyes beggan to dazzle
And they off to see the races

With me wack fol the do fol
The diddle idle day

There were passengers from Limrick
And passengers from Nenagh
The boys of Connemara
And the Clare unmarried maiden
There were people from Cork City
Who were loyal, true and faithful
Who brought home the Fenian prisoners
From dying in foreign nations

With me wack fol the do fol
The diddle idle day

And it's there you see the pipers
And the fiddlers competing
And the sporting wheel of fortune
And the four and twenty quaters
And there's others without scruple
Pelting wattles at poor Maggie
And her father well contented
And he gazing at his daughter

With me wack fol the do fol
The diddle idle day

And it's there you see
The jockeys and
They mounted on so stably
The pink, the blue, the orange, and green
The colours of our nation
When the bell was rung for starting
All the horses seemed impatient
Their feet they hardly touched the ground
The speed was so amazing!

With me wack fol the do fol
The diddle idle day

There was half a million people there
Of all denominations
The Catholic, the Protestant, the Jew
The Presbyterian
There was yet no animosity
No matter what persuasion
But failte hospitality
Inducing fresh acquaintance

With me wack fol the do fol
The diddle idle day

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