Irish Examiner 31st March, 1894 p.12
Photo: Tony Hisgett
Creative Commons
By Galway Bay
When Spring with blossoms wild and sweet, made all the meadows smile,
And wreathed her roses ’round the brow of God’s Eternal Isle,
I dreamed the bright dreams of a boy, and left my books and play,
To watch the white sails gleaming – the sails on Galway Bay.
At morn my bare feet brushed the dew, to see the great sun rise,
(Ah! never was a sun like that in all God’s splendid skies!)
A sun that gave the loveliest light – a light that lives today.
As when it kissed the sails that gleamed – the sails on Galway Bay!
How bright the suns – how sweet the winds – how blue the skies that bent
Above the waves that mirrored them and murmured as they went!
And the shouting of the captains and the sailors far away,
In the boats that rocked near Galway – the boats on Galway Bay!
I would today I were a boy – a little barefoot boy,
Where once I watched the bending sails – the boats that danced for joy!
For though my ship has crossed the sea and anchored far away,
Still blow the gales and gleam the sails – the sails on Galway Bay!
Atlanta Constitution.
The Burren and Beyond 