Galway Bay is the name of two sentimental songs, one written by Francis A. Fahy (b. 1850), and the other written in 1947 by Dr. Arthur Colahan and made famous by singers such as Bing Crosby
| The air of the first is My Irish Molly, O. It begins:
It’s far away I am today From scenes I roamed a boy And long ago the hour, I know I first saw Illinois But Time nor Tide, not waters wide, Can wean my heart away For ever true it flies to you My own dear Galway Bay |
The 1947 version is the best known. It begins:
If you ever go Across the sea to Ireland, Then maybe at the Closing of your day, You will sit and watch The moon rise over Cladagh And see the sun Go down on Galway Bay |
A Satirical version begins:
Maybe someday I’ll go back again to Ireland, If only my ex-wife would pass away, Sure, she has me poor heart broke with all her naggin’ And she has a mouth as big as Galway Bay. See her drinking sixteen pints of Arthur Guiness, And when the barman says, “It’s time to go.”, Sure, she wouldn’t answer him in Gaelic, But in a language that the clergy do not know. |