Christy Moore - Ruby Walsh - Galway Races

Christy Moore's tribute to Ruby Walsh who 'saved me life' at the Galway Races.

There's Bethlehem and Cheltenham and Lourdes and Limerick Junction,
The trip to Medjagoria, the rub of the Extreme Unction.
Good people climb Croagh Patrick with serenity on their faces,
But Ruby Walsh he saved me life below at the Galway Races.
Ruby hold her back, give her the crack and up she'll go.

They're under starters orders, Ted Walsh is commentating,
Ruby's up on the favourite, she'll take some 'batin'.
Necks are craned and eyes are strained, there's fear upon the faces.
There's agony and ecstasy below at the Galway Races.
Hey Ruby hold her back, give her the crack and up she'll go.

It's there you'll see gentility and sheep dressed up like mutton.
There's double barrelled names with more airs than old melodeons.
The talk is all of tillage, of silage and conacre.
I fancy Tracy Piggot in the saddling enclosure.
Hey Ruby hold her back, give her the crack and up she'll go.

Sir John Mucksavage-Smythe is there with Smurfits and O'Reillys,
The owners and the trainers, and the stable boys and jockeys
With silk around their arses getting up on rich men's horses
Not to mention wives and daughters and marriages and divorces.
Hey Ruby hold her back, give her the crack and up she'll go.

There's Celtic helicopters, land bank speculators,
Builders and developers, crocodiles and alligators.
Soldiers of Destiny, they're in a fevered frenzy.
Them boys would eat the Lamb Of God and come back for the gravy.
Hey Ruby hold her back, give her the crack and up she'll go.

Thursday is the Ladies' Day and the women all look smashing,
They're lashing on the lipstick, Philip Treacy's all the fashion.
You can see the liposuction, the botox and augmentation,
Brazilian haircuts, colonic irrigation.
Hey Ruby hold her back, give her the crack and up she'll go.

And everyone's out to Salthill for the crack and for the porter,
There's bookies making odds on two flies walking up the wall.
There's folk and trad and they're disco mad, karaoke and set dances,
While some of us who'd seen better days were looking to take our chances.
Hey Ruby hold her back, give her the crack and up she'll go.

They're galloping down the back straight, he has her in a canter,
Ah look at her lep the jumps, by God, she's like a ballet-dancer.
They're over the last, she hits the front, no other is going to pass her.
'Winner All Right', it's 'Up Kildare!', 'Follow me up to Carlow'.
Hey Ruby hold her back, give her the craic and up she'll go.
Hey Ruby hold her back, give her the crack and up she'll go.