[Recruiting Sergeant]

As I was walking down the road

A feeling fine and larky oh
A recruiting sergeant came up to me
Says he, you'd look fine in khaki oh

For the King he is in need of men
Come read this proclamation oh
A life in Flanders for you then

Would be a fine vacation oh

That may be so says I to him

But tell me sergeant dearie-oh
If I had a pack stuck upon my back
Would I look fine and cheerie oh

For they'd have you train and drill until
They had you one of the Frenchies oh
It may be warm in Flanders

But it's draughty in the trenches oh

The sergeant smiled and winked his eye

His smile was most provoking oh
He twiddled and twirled his wee mustache
Says he, I know you're only joking oh

For the sandbags are so warm and high
The wind you won't feel blowing oh
Well I winked at a cailin passing by

Says I, what if it's snowing oh

Come rain or hail or wind or snow

I'm not going out to Flanders oh
There's fighting in Dublin to be done
Let your sergeants and your commanders go

Let Englishmen fight English wars
It's nearly time they started oh
I saluted the sergeant a very good night

And there and then we parted oh

[The Rocky Road to Dublin]


(instrumental)


[Galway Races]

As I went down to Galway Town

To seek for recreation
On the seventeenth of August
Me mind being elevated

There were passengers $$#embled
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