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 no animosity No matter what persuasion But failte hospitality Inducing fresh acquaintance