Cavaliers To Ride Again At Banagher Fair
They will tumble down as Dick did before them
To one side will be their self important laws will be thrown
We will sell our horses as did our forefathers before us
It is not for the government to say can we a horse sell or own
Not their right pass acts in parliament to grant or deny permission
For a fair granted by Charles himself from the throne…
Royal charter, to sell our horses on the streets was written
When the king lost his crown and head, it continued on
We got our freedom from Kings and Protectors officially
Why is it only now the right to sell our horses is gone?
Roundheads in suits who wield pens and not swords, wont arrest bankers as criminals for fraud
Make a wiling Yeomanry of the Guardai to call the common man one?
We may have lost our language to fit in with regulations
Some lost their faith, more changed their name
We endured such like and worse from regimes far stronger
From such tenacious folk our folk have came
We will trade horses in Banagher in September
If we have to swap, barter or raffle them we will
In the spirit of the Restoration of our nation
Come ride with the Cavaliers at the Fair on Banagher Hill!
Banagher Horse Fair dates back to circa 1608, when King Charles I of the House of Stewart granted the rights not alone to the current horse fair, but to another two as well. The others died out, only the horse fair remains.
Even during Cromwellian times the Horse Fair continued, and to the present day unbroken by the Williamite Wars, the rebellions of 1641, 1798, 1801, 1848, the Fenains, the War of Independence, the Civil War and two World Wars… until numptys in suits descided regulation was more important than tradition, and the law is the law and must be upheld.
The full force of the local Gardai and the Department of Agriculture and the Revenue Commissioners was used last year – as I satired in “Just Doing Our Job“, when bankers involved in high level fraud have not been jailed, but yet to sell a horse without permission is denied.
We did not need permission to own or sell a horse from government since the end of the Penal Laws.
If they take a Cromwellian approach to governement and instill injust laws, then folk have no problems taking a cavalier approach to such laws and by hook or by crook if we have to raffle the horses on the streets – selling but not selling – the Banagher Horse Fair will continue.
Ride wit the Cavaliers – see you in Banagher this September!