"Galway Bay" is the name of two different songs.
The first (My Own Dear) Galway Bay is traditionally more popular and known in the Galway Bay area. The second song is more popular outside of Ireland.

First song: (My Own Dear) Galway Bay.

This song is known alternatively as Galway Bay, My Own Dear Galway Bay, or the 'old Galway Bay'.

It was composed in London by Frank A. Fahy (1845-1935), a native of Kinvara (Co. Galway) on the shores of Galway Bay. It was originally written to air of "Skibbereen" but is now better known sung to a different air written by Tony Small.

One of the most renowned recordings of the later version was by the Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 singer Dolores Keane

Dolores Keane

Dolores Keane is an Irish folk singer and occasional actress. She was a founding member of the successful group De Dannan, and has since embarked on a very successful solo career, establishing herself as one of the most loved interpreters of Irish song.-Background:Keane was born in a small village...

.

Second Song: Galway Bay.

This separate song was written by Dr. Arthur Colahan in Leicester in 1947 and was popularised by Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

. Crosby changed some of the lyrics so as to be less political and it became a huge hit around the world with Irish emigrants. The copyright of this version is held by Box and Cox Publications of London. A humorous version was created by The Clancy Brothers

The Clancy Brothers

The Clancy Brothers were an influential Irish folk music singing group, most popular in the 1960s, they were famed for their woolly Aran jumpers and are widely credited with popularizing Irish traditional music in the United States. The brothers were Patrick "Paddy" Clancy, Tom Clancy, Bobby Clancy...

 and Tommy Makem

Tommy Makem

Thomas "Tommy" Makem was an internationally celebrated Irish folk musician, artist, poet and storyteller. He was best known as a member of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. He played the long-necked 5-string banjo, guitar, tin whistle, and bagpipes, and sang in a distinctive baritone...

. A reference of note to Colahan's song is in The Pogues

The Pogues

The Pogues are a Celtic punk band, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems but the band continued first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before...

' "Fairytale of New York

Fairytale of New York

"Fairytale of New York" is a song by the Irish rock group The Pogues, released in 1987 and featuring the British singer Kirsty MacColl. The song is an Irish folk style ballad, written by Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan, and featured on The Pogues' album If I Should Fall from Grace with God...

". Chloë Agnew

Chloë Agnew

Chloë Alexandra Adele Emily Agnew is an Irish singer who is one of the current members of the Celtic music group Celtic Woman as the youngest member. She comes from Knocklyon, County Dublin where she lived with her mother Adele "Twink" King and younger sister Naomi...

 of Celtic Woman

Celtic Woman

Celtic Woman is an all-female musical ensemble conceived and assembled by Sharon Browne and David Downes, a former musical director of the Irish stage show Riverdance...

also covered the song in the group's show Songs from the Heart.

Lyrics to the Fahy version

'Tis 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 nor waters wide can wean my heart away,

For ever true it flies to you, my dear old Galway Bay.

My chosen bride is by my side, her brown hair silver-grey,

Her daughter Rose as like her grows as April dawn today.

Our only boy, his mother's joy, his father's pride and stay;

With gifts like these I'd live at ease, were I near Galway Bay.

Oh, grey and bleak, by shore and creek, the rugged rocks abound,

But sweet and green the grass between, as grows on Irish ground,

So friendship fond, all wealth beyond, and love that lives alway,

Bless each poor home beside your foam, my dear old Galway Bay.

A prouder man I'd walk the land in health and peace of mind,

If I might toil and strive and moil, nor cast one thought behind,

But what would be the world to me, its wealth and rich array,

If memory I lost of thee, my own dear Galway Bay.

Had I youth's blood and hopeful mood and heart of fire once more,

For all the gold the world might hold I'd never quit your shore,

I'd live content whate'er God sent with neighbours old and gray,

And lay my bones, 'neath churchyard stones, beside you, Galway Bay.

The blessing of a poor old man be with you night and day,

The blessing of a lonely man whose heart will soon be clay;

'Tis all the Heaven I'll ask of God upon my dying day,

My soul to soar for ever more above you, Galway Bay.

Lyrics to the Colahan version

If you ever go across the sea to Ireland,

Then maybe, at the closing of your day,

You can sit and watch the moon rise 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 meadow making hay

Just to sit beside a turf fire in the cabin

And watch the barefoot gossoons at their play.

For the breezes blowing o'er the sea from Ireland

Are perfumed by the heather as they blow

And the women in the uplands diggin' praties

Speak a language that the strangers do not know.

Yet the strangers came and tried to teach us their ways

And they scorned us just for bein' what we are

But they might as well go chasin' after moonbeams

Or light a penny candle from a star.

And if there is going to be a life hereafter

And faith, somehow I'm 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.

I will ask my God to let me make my heaven

In my dear land across the Irish sea.

External links

• Lyrics to the Colohan version can be found at http://ingeb.org/songs/ifyouev.html .
• Lyrics chords sheet music and video of Galway Bay