Derby Day - Christy Moore

Bishop walked in circles inside the cloistered wall

Pondering in solitude on leather soles

Just outside the palace down on his wretched knees

Husband begged for whiskey beneath the lilac trees

Over in the courthouse Judge sat wrestling with a yawn

Wondering would the gardener pluck the daisies off the lawn

Annoyed and irritated by a «guilty"woman's whine

Poor wife pleading innocence to an alleged crime

Next day was a Derby Day down on the Curragh plains

Dry old men of cloth and silk watched the sport of kings

Meanwhile back down the town a husband battered down the door

Beat his wife around the face and kicked her to the floor

Husband took his own life, wife passed away

Judge donned his veil of sorrow, put the children into care

They became God’s little orphans, learned to serve and to obey

To be unobtrusive when Bishop knelt to pray