Galway and its Races 



GALWAY, the City of The Tribes, has a decidedly tribal 

 flavour during Race Week. Here one mingles with 

 men whose ancestry goes back to the very dawn of 

 history : men who are the direct descendants of the old 

 Western Chieftains, and whose family names were 

 household words long before the galleons of the Armada 

 were shattered to matchwood on the rugged shores of 

 their territory. They are not racing men in the modern 

 meaning of the term, but they are sportsmen who 

 would not, for worlds, miss the fun that Galway Week 

 provides. 



The high standard of the racing fare provided goes 

 without saying, since the cream of Ireland's steeple- 

 chasers are participants; but the racing itself is not the 

 essence of the meeting. It lies in the surrounding 

 country and the types of people one meets. 



It is interesting to watch a solemn-faced Aran 

 Islander indulging in a little bit of excitement with a 

 worried bookmaker. The bookmaker's worry is due to 

 the investor's mode of expression, for the Aranman's 

 native tongue is Gaelic; and although the bookmaker 

 may possess an alarmingly florid vocabulary on other 

 occasions, he is as docile as a lamb in the presence of 

 this solemn-faced stoic. If the investments are lucky, 



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