Page 47
In 1764 there was a five-day race meeting at Knockbarron near Loughrea, and exactly 100 years later, the ‘Western Plate’ race was confined to “gentlemen riders qualified for National Hunt Races at Punchestown or members of the County Galway Hunt”. The first racing festival held in Ballybrit was a two-day event with the first race meeting on Tuesday, 17th August, 1869.
Try in G - may be too low though
Galway Races, The
by trad
[C] As I went down to Galway Town
To seek for recreation
On the [Am] seventeenth of August
Me [G] mind being eleva- [C] ted
There were passengers assem- [G] bled
With their [Am] tickets at the [C] station
And me eyes began to [Em] dazzle
And they [Am] off to see the races
With me [C] wack fol the [G] do fol
The [Am] diddly 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
To seek for recreation
On the [Am] seventeenth of August
Me [G] mind being eleva- [C] ted
There were passengers assem- [G] bled
With their [Am] tickets at the [C] station
And me eyes began to [Em] dazzle
And they [Am] off to see the races
With me [C] wack fol the [G] do fol
The [Am] diddly 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