Painting by Jack B Yeats

This song was written by Jimmy McCarthy (b1956, Macroom, Co Cork) who also wrote No Frontiers for Mary Black. Other songs he penned include Missing You, Bright Blue Rose and Mystic Lipstick. It was the title track of Christy Moore’s 1984 album.
The author explained on Radio Eireann in February 2010 that he once worked as an apprentice jockey. Out on the gallops, the older horses would lead with the two-year-olds bringing up the rear. But as the younger horses developed, they needed the horses in front to go faster, so the jockeys would shout out  ”Ride On.”
As for the meaning of the song, Christy Moore wrote in his book One Voice: “Many people wonder what it’s about but Jimmy McCarthy keeps that to himself. All we need to know is what it means to us individually.”
The song was also recorded by Mary Coughlan on her 1987 album Under the Influence.
Christy Moore has said that sometimes when his audience gets a bit rowdy, he sings Ride On and that always “quietens them down.”

RIDE ON
True, you ride the finest horse I’ve ever seen,
Standing sixteen, one or two
with eyes wild and green
You ride the horse so well
hands light to the touch
I could never go with you
no matter how I wanted to

[CHORUS:]
Ride on, see you
I could never go with you
No matter how I wanted to.

When you ride into the night
without a trace behind
Run your claw along my gut, one last time
I turn to face an empty space
where you used to lie
And look for the spark that lights the night
through a teardrop in my eye

[CHORUS]