Ireland and Galway Bay

When my brothers, sister, and I were little, my Dad used to sing a song to put us to sleep called "Galway Bay." The song was first sung, as far as I know, by Bing Crosby in 1948, and Dad sang it to us. It's a sentimental and beautiful song, filled with a longing to go back to Ireland and "watch the sun go down on Galway Bay." The song has some interesting elements to it, including a couple of Gaelic words, somewhat anglicized (Garsoons, boys; and praties, potatoes) and a reference to the hated English landlords ("The strangers came and tried to teach us their ways/ They scorned us just for being what we are . . ."). Dad never set foot on Irish soil, though courtesy of the U.S. Navy he traveled much of the world during World War II. But like his own father, Connie Coughlin, he loved his Irish heritage. In the photo above, Linda, Carolan, and I "watch the sun go down on Galway Bay" [truth be told, it was coming up!] on a chilly late November day in 2005. We said a prayer for Dad and Mom, for all the exiles and "Wild Geese" who never had a chance to come back to the ancestral home. "Go n-Éirí an Bóthar leat!"

Here's a link to Frank Patterson singing "Galway Bay": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYyhwUNhEAU