That Beats Banagher
They want the horse fair banished from the streets to a field
Where they believe all horses should be
Their spirit contained, their owners constrained
Not on the streets to walk with their owners free
To deal with the buyers, who bargain with the sellers
As the horses stand by proud as part of the herd
Which those who would stop it pretend never existed
As if of the bond between man and beast they never heard…
How did in days gone by before cars and fumes
Brought us from where we were to where we wanted to go
Hoe did we plough the fields, bring the turf home?
Tow barges before engines on canals long ago?
Yesm horses are to man as is the dog
That races along between its owners feet
Its not natural to ban them behind hedges to a field
All are natural, and at home, on the street.
Some cite shit – reason to banish it from the street:
Can that not from the street be cleaned like years ago?
Its not polluting, its natural the smell
Unlike diesel, which pollutes the Shannon river from the boats below…
But there’s Germans in the boats that on the water floats
Not Travellers in their own land
So they are free from small minded bigotry
The agenda of the objectors we understand.
Micro chips on horses in principle with we have no problem:
It would help with breed and record of dam and sire
But what of common horses of common people
Who cannot afford veterinary fees that always go higher?
Are the poor to be forced too poor to own horses?
Is the horse only for the gentry to be?
But sure the objectors always hate the hunt
The Anglo Irish another target of their bigotry.
The Good Friday Agreement in principle is good:
Though delivering little while promising all to all
Parity of esteem is proven to be little more than a dream
If fair what they do to our Fair is what we allow them to call
The regulations they enforce to our little town
As horse fairs on streets in other towns are left alone…
It will be resisted, ignored and defeated
This is a tradition we will keep, thats our heritage, our own.
That beats Banagher they say: we say no way
That does not beat Banagher this time:
We are Banagher, stand behind a tradition of our town and our land:
Banagher beats the Devil again that tries to make our Horse Fair a crime!