An example of the type of song I'm talking about; full of local references and humour -
Synopsis:
Bunch of local men from a beautiful village in rural West Cork, club together and hire a horse and carriage to spend a day out in a renowned local beauty spot they had never visited before, Gougane Barra, get drunk and come home unimpressed at what they had been told would take their breaths away:

"We thought we'd see sights that would dazzle our eyes
But the divil a bit, only mountains and skies."

A minor masterpiece that never moved from the area in which it was made; certainly never entered the national repertoire.
Jim Carroll


THE TRIP TO GOUGANE
(Recorded from Diarmid O'Sullivan)

I'm one of those jolly young chaps from the Cross;
I'm fond of amusement and fond of a glass.
With a thirst I can't quench and a heart that is free,
And everything else plays the devil with me.

CHORUS: Rally ra fal the da, rally racks fol the dee

'Twas the fifteenth of August of this present year,
'Tis a day I'll remember for long, never fear.
To famed Gougane Barra we went for the day
With the boys of the village, light hearted and gay.

There was Buckleys and Healys and Sullivans too,
A Leary, two Connells, a Roche and a Drew;
Such a crowd of McCarthys I ne'er saw before,
And the Cronins were counted by the dozen or score.

This holiday morning just after first Mass,
We started away on our trip from the Cross.
Two handsome long cars we had hired for the day
Were waiting there ready to take us away.

The people were standing at every crossroad;
They came to the windows and more to the doors,
Saying, 'Who are these boys who are dressed up so swell ?
They must be the grandees from Williams's Hotel.'

Going towards Ballingeary and as we drew near
We moistened our lips for our first taste of beer.
We started again just as fleet as the fawn
And before twelve o'clock, we sailed into Gougane.

We were well tired and thirsty ere the horses did stop
And each man was smacking his lips for a drop.
We jumped from the cars and a song we struck up
And we marched in a body straight into the pub.

Some went boating all day in the lake close at hand;
While others went drinking till they could not stand.
We thought we'd see sights that would dazzle our eyes
But the divil a bit, only mountains and skies.

Some girls were there and indeed they were fine;
We were standing them glasses of whiskey and wine.
We paid for them all without caring a taste
And the worth of our money knocked out of their waist.

We started for home them before it got late,
And the horses were going at the divil's own rate.
I thought they would surely fall down on the road
Before they could carry such a drunken old load.

Then Cornelius O'Connell lost his new Sunday cap,
And Dan Buckley, on seeing it, jumped out of a hop.
The horses wouldn't stop till the cap was too far,
He had to run three and a half miles to keep up with the car

When we reached Ballingeary, we asked for some bread,
But boxes of biscuits they gave us instead,
And the stomachs being empty with each mother's son,
Sure we finished twelve boxes before we were done.

And O'Porter, the owner at Innes Hotel
Bought a bad brand of stout that he wanted to sell,
And, in order to cheat us, the clever old coon,
The barrels were up in his private back room.

We were half the time standing on each other's toes;
Tadgh Buckley thanks God that he still have his nose;
He was met by an elbow with the divil's own thud,
By my soul but he lost half a gallon of blood.

We got back to the Cross when the day it was o'er,
And we filled ourselves up with good porter once more
We recovered our senses next morning round dawn,
And that was the end of the trip to Gougane.