GALWAY Words, Oliver St. John Gogarty (from the poem "Galway").
A grey town in a country bare, the leaden seas between, When the light falls on the hills of Clare and shows their Valleys green. Take in my heart your place again between your lake and sea Oh city of the watery plain, that means so much to me.
Your cut stone houses row on row Your streams too deep to sing Whose waters shine with green as though They had dissolved the spring.
Your streets that still bring into view the harbour and its spars, The chimneys with their turf smoke blue that never hides the stars. Take in my heart your place again between your lake and sea Like crimson roses in grey walls your memories to me.
It is not very long since you, for memory is long, Saw her I owe my being to, and heart that takes the song, Walk with a row of laughing girls from Salthill to Eyre Square Light from the water on their curls that never lit so fair.
Take in my heart your place again between your lake and sea, Like crimson roses in grey walls your memories to me. Again may come your glorious days, your ships come back to port, And to your city's shining ways the Spanish girls resort.
And e'er the tidal water falls, your ships put out to sea Like crimson roses in grey walls your memories to me. Take in my heart your place again between your lake and sea Oh, city of the watery plain, that means so much to me.