A good song has first of all, a good melody, then interesting words, then a meaning. If there was no meaning to the song other than it being a nice story why sing it at all? I believe the author or person(s) handing this song down made the song ambiguous deliberately, not with any seditious intent, but to make the song more complex, which it is. Like any really good song, the listener is free to enjoy it at one level, or look into deeper or alternative readings as they wish. For instance, THE STACK OF BARLEY is a beautiful tune to play , listen to or dance to. It could be heard at any céilidh or hooley at the time the song was written, as it is now. However, a friend pointed out to me that when dancing the STACK OF BARLEY, the couples dancing around the house with their alternating hop-step look like a stack of barley as well. One doesn't need to know that to enjoy dancing it, but it does make it more interesting. I would venture to say that every detail in the song is significant right down to hitting the road to Donegal, which is about as far as you can get from Oranmore and still be in Ireland.

I have some friends that I think I will see tonight who are from Galway. I'll see if they can shed some light on this.

I've been looking on the internet for any information on this song. It seems to be listed as Traditional or Anonymous, which means nothing. One site insisted that THE FOGGY DEW was the fiddle tune and had nothing to do with any song by the same name. In spite of the lyrics being fairly consistent, no one has ventured to date the song or name its author.

Brían