Arvas streets saw chaos, fights and blood
Men of anger settling fueds, scores and slights
Moscows streets saw tanks and missiles
Televisions broadcasting to the world the feasome sights
Englands fair fields saw dancing around Maypoles…
Young men over maidens fair having fistfights…
Today the workers struggle struggles on
Though their load is not as hard as before
Moscow and Arva remember their heydays
Both have not such spectacles any more.
Englands far fair fields are quiet now
The maypole forgotton bar by a few score…
“Mayday in Arvagh” was a phrase used by my father to describe a riot situation, as at the annual May Day fair in the Cavan town people fought to settle scores and slights often from a meeting, a drinking session or a deal on an animal gone wrong from the previos year. Contrasted with the cold war displays on International Labour Day in the old east bloc, it is farcical to look down on indeed, both having their roots in the pagan May Day traditions in England and Europe, which now like the Soviet marches and the fights at a May Day fair are a thing of the past, at least on the scale they one were.
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