Galway Races, The

DESCRIPTION: On August 17 "half a million" gather at Galway for the horse races.The multitudes and occupations are described in great variety. "There was yet no animosity, no matter what persuasion"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads); 19C (broadside, LOCSinging as113080)
KEYWORDS: racing dancing food music Ireland political horse
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 10, "The Sporting Races of Galway" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, [abbreviation unknown, but it's in there]
Roud #3031
RECORDINGS:
Liam Clancy, "Galway Races" (on IRLClancy01)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as113080, "The Sporting Races of Galway," unknown [Brereton (Dublin)?], 19C
NOTES [149 words]: I could not see the following broadside in detail though it almost certainly refers to the same ballad:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(621), "The Sporting Races of Galway" ("As I roved out through Galway town to n ek for recreation"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867. There are the usual Brereton spelling errors -- in this case in the first line -- as well as the imprint (so far as could be made out) that make me believe this is the same broadside as LOCSinging as113080. - BS
Although the "proper" title of this seems to be "The Sporting Races of Galway," I called it "The Galway Races" because that title (from the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem) seems to be what most people know these days.
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 44, notes that the Races were such a Big Deal that many people went there without ever seeing, or wishing to see, a horse! - RBW
File: OLoc010

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