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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=343977" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Father Riley's Horse</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Twas the horse thief, Andy Regan, that was hunted like a dog <br>By the troopers of the upper Murray side, <br>They had searched in every gully -- they had looked in every log, <br>But never sight or track of him they spied, <br>Till the priest at Kiley's Crossing heard a knocking very late <br>And a whisper &quot;Father Riley -- come across!&quot; <br>So his Rev'rence in pyjamas trotted softly to the gate <br>And admitted Andy Regan -- and a horse! <br>&quot;Now, it's listen, Father Riley, to the words I've got to say, <br>For it's close upon my death I am tonight. <br>With the troopers hard behind me I've been hiding all the day <br>In the gullies keeping close and out of sight. <br>But they're watching all the ranges till there's not a bird could fly, <br>And I'm fairly worn to pieces with the strife, <br>So I'm taking no more trouble, but I'm going home to die, <br>'Tis the only way I see to save my life. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;Yes, I'm making home to mother's, and I'll die o' Tuesday next <br>An' be buried on the Thursday -- and, of course, <br>I'm prepared to meet my penance, but with one thing I'm perplexed <br>And it's -- Father, it's this jewel of a horse! <br>He was never bought nor paid for, and there's not a man can swear <br>To his owner or his breeder, but I know, <br>That his sire was by Pedantic from the Old Pretender mare <br>And his dam was close related to The Roe. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;And there's nothing in the district that can race him for a step, <br>He could canter while they're going at their top: <br>He's the king of all the leppers that was ever seen to lep, <br>A five-foot fence -- he'd clear it in a hop! <br>So I'll leave him with you, Father, till the dead shall rise again, <br>Tis yourself that knows a good 'un; and, of course, <br>You can say he's got by Moonlight out of Paddy Murphy's plain <br>If you're ever asked the breeding of the horse! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;But it's getting on to daylight and it's time to say goodbye, <br>For the stars above the east are growing pale. <br>And I'm making home to mother -- and it's hard for me to die! <br>But it's harder still, is keeping out of gaol! <br>You can ride the old horse over to my grave across the dip <br>Where the wattle bloom is waving overhead. <br>Sure he'll jump them fences easy -- you must never raise the whip <br>Or he'll rush 'em! -- now, goodbye!&quot; and he had fled! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">So they buried Andy Regan, and they buried him to rights, <br>In the graveyard at the back of Kiley's Hill; <br>There were five-and-twenty mourners who had five-and-twenty fights <br>Till the very boldest fighters had their fill. <br>There were fifty horses racing from the graveyard to the pub, <br>And their riders flogged each other all the while. <br>And the lashin's of the liquor! And the lavin's of the grub! <br>Oh, poor Andy went to rest in proper style. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then the races came to Kiley's -- with a steeplechase and all, <br>For the folk were mostly Irish round about, <br>And it takes an Irish rider to be fearless of a fall, <br>They were training morning in and morning out. <br>But they never started training till the sun was on the course <br>For a superstitious story kept 'em back, <br>That the ghost of Andy Regan on a slashing chestnut horse, <br>Had been training by the starlight on the track. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And they read the nominations for the races with surprise <br>And amusement at the Father's little joke, <br>For a novice had been entered for the steeplechasing prize, <br>And they found it was Father Riley's moke! <br>He was neat enough to gallop, he was strong enough to stay! <br>But his owner's views of training were immense, <br>For the Reverend Father Riley used to ride him every day, <br>And he never saw a hurdle nor a fence. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And the priest would join the laughter: &quot;Oh,&quot; said he, &quot;I put him in, <br>For there's five-and-twenty sovereigns to be won. <br>And the poor would find it useful, if the chestnut chanced to win, <br>And he'll maybe win when all is said and done!&quot; <br>He had called him Faugh-a-ballagh, which is French for 'Clear the course', <br>And his colours were a vivid shade of green: <br>All the Dooleys and O'Donnells were on Father Riley's horse, <br>While the Orangemen were backing Mandarin! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was Hogan, the dog poisoner -- aged man and very wise, <br>Who was camping in the racecourse with his swag, <br>And who ventured the opinion, to the township's great surprise, <br>That the race would go to Father Riley's nag. <br>&quot;You can talk about your riders -- and the horse has not been schooled, <br>And the fences is terrific, and the rest! <br>When the field is fairly going, then ye'll see ye've all been fooled, <br>And the chestnut horse will battle with the best. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;For there's some has got condition, and they think the race is sure, <br>And the chestnut horse will fall beneath the weight, <br>But the hopes of all the helpless, and the prayers of all the poor, <br>Will be running by his side to keep him straight. <br>And it's what's the need of schoolin' or of workin' on the track, <br>Whin the saints are there to guide him round the course! <br>I've prayed him over every fence -- I've prayed him out and back! <br>And I'll bet my cash on Father Riley's horse!&quot; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">   * </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Oh, the steeple was a caution! They went tearin' round and round, <br>And the fences rang and rattled where they struck. <br>There was some that cleared the water -- there was more fell in and drowned, <br>Some blamed the men and others blamed the luck! <br>But the whips were flying freely when the field came into view, <br>For the finish down the long green stretch of course, <br>And in front of all the flyers -- jumpin' like a kangaroo, <br>Came the rank outsider -- Father Riley's horse! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Oh, the shouting and the cheering as he rattled past the post! <br>For he left the others standing, in the straight; <br>And the rider -- well they reckoned it was Andy Regan's ghost, <br>And it beat 'em how a ghost would draw the weight! <br>But he weighed in, nine stone seven, then he laughed and disappeared, <br>Like a banshee (which is Spanish for an elf), <br>And old Hogan muttered sagely, &quot;If it wasn't for the beard <br>They'd be thinking it was Andy Regan's self!&quot; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And the poor of Kiley's Crossing drank the health at Christmastide <br>Of the chestnut and his rider dressed in green. <br>There was never such a rider, not since Andy Regan died, <br>And they wondered who on earth he could have been. <br>But they settled it among 'em, for the story got about, <br>'Mongst the bushmen and the people on the course, <br>That the Devil had been ordered to let Andy Regan out <br>For the steeplechase on Father Riley's horse!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Andrew+Barton+Paterson">Andrew Barton Paterson</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=343977" data-title="Father Riley's Horse de Andrew Barton Paterson" data-description="'Twas the horse thief, Andy Regan, that was hunted like a dog 
By the troopers of the upper Murray side, 
They had searched in every gully -- they had looked in every log, 
But never sight or track of him they spied, 
Till the priest at Kiley's Cr..."></div>
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