(Traditional)

As I went down to Galway Town

To seek for recreation

On the seventeenth of August

Me mind being elevated

There were passengers assembled

With their tickets at the station

And me eyes began to dazzle

And they off to see the races



With me wack fol the do fol

The diddle idle day



There were passengers from Limerick

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



And it's there you'll see the pipers

And the fiddlers competing

And the sporting wheel of fortune

And the four and twenty quarters

And there's others without scruple

Pelting wattles at poor Maggie

And her father well contented

And he gazing at his daughter



And it's there you'll see the jockeys

And they mounted on so stably

The pink, the blue, the orange, and green

The colors of our nation

The time it came for starting

All the horses seemed impatient

Their feet they hardly touched the ground

The speed was so amazing!



There was half a million people there

Of all denominations

The Catholic, the Protestant, the Jew, the Presbyterian

Yet there was no animosity

No matter what persuasion

But failte hospitality

Inducing fresh acquaintance