Medley: The Recruiting Sergeant / The Rocky Road to Dublin / Galway Races

As I was walking down the road

A feeling fine and larky, oh

A recruiting sergeant came up to me

Says he, you'd look fine in khaki, oh

For the King he is in need of men

Come read this proclamation, oh

A life in Flanders for you then

Would be a fine vacation, oh

That may be so says I to him

But tell me sergeant dearie-oh

If I had a pack stuck upon my back

Would I look fine and cheerie, oh

For they'd have you train and drill until

They had you one of the Frenchies, oh

It may be warm in Flanders

But it's draughty in the trenches, oh

The sergeant smiled and winked his eye

His smile was most provoking, oh

He twiddled and twirled his wee mustache

Says he, you're only joking, oh

For the sandbags are so warm and high

The wind you won't feel blowing, oh

I winked at a Cailin passing by

Says I, what if it's snowing, oh

Come rain or hail or wind or snow

I'm not going out to Flanders, oh

There's fighting in Dublin to be done

Let your sergeants and your commanders go

Let Englishmen fight English wars

It's nearly time they started, oh

I saluted the sergeant a very good night

And there and then we parted, oh

As I went down to Galway Town

To seek for recreation

On the seventeenth of August

Me mind being elevated

There were passengers assembled

With their tickets at the station

And me eyes began to dazzle

And they off to see the races

With me wack fol the do fol

The diddle idle day

There were passengers from Limerick

And passengers from Nenagh

The boys of Connemara

And the Clare unmarried maidens

There were people from Cork City

Who were loyal, true and faithful

Who brought home the Fenian prisoners

From dying in foreign nations