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Galway Bay Lyrics
If you ever go across the sea to Ireland
Then maybe at the closing of your day
You will sit and watch the moonrise over Claddagh
And see the sun go down on Galway Bay
Just to hear again the ripple of the trout stream
The women in the meadows making hay
And to sit beside a turf fire in the cabin
And watch the barefoot gossoons at their play
For the breezes blowing o'er the seas from Ireland
Are perfumed by the heather as they blow
And the women in the uplands digging praties
Speak a language that the strangers do not know
For the strangers came and tried to teach their way
They scorned us just for being what we are
But they might as well go chasing after moonbeams
Or light a penny candle from a star
And if there is going to be a life hereafter
And somehow I am sure there's going to be
I will ask my God to let me make my heaven
In that dear land across the Irish sea
Then maybe at the closing of your day
You will sit and watch the moonrise over Claddagh
And see the sun go down on Galway Bay
Just to hear again the ripple of the trout stream
The women in the meadows making hay
And to sit beside a turf fire in the cabin
And watch the barefoot gossoons at their play
For the breezes blowing o'er the seas from Ireland
Are perfumed by the heather as they blow
And the women in the uplands digging praties
Speak a language that the strangers do not know
For the strangers came and tried to teach their way
They scorned us just for being what we are
Or light a penny candle from a star
And if there is going to be a life hereafter
And somehow I am sure there's going to be
I will ask my God to let me make my heaven
In that dear land across the Irish sea
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This song is about the English oppressing the Irish, perhaps being before or during the Irish famine/ genocide.
The Irish was strong and firm in their cultural and religious beliefs, which were challenged by the English again and again. "for the strangers came and tried to teach us THEIR way; they scorned us just for being what we are; but they might as well go chasing after moonbeams or light a penny candle from a star" : hence the term "The fighting Irish". Their language has now become extinct "speak a language that the STRANGERS do not know". It seems that the Irish wanted to be left alone and to live the simple life that they'd lived for centuries until the English felt that they were inferior and disposable eventually doing away with 2 million Irish people during the Irish genocide. So I think this song represents their willfulness and pride in their culture and resistance to the English "who scorned us just for being what we are".