O Waly Waly

I play in a string ensemble once a month as well as regular orchestra, and we played a suite of folk songs arranged by John Rutter this afternoon. One was called "O Waly Waly" about which there was a heated debate about what the title meant. Noone knew. So like the sad geek I am I looked it up on Wikipedia as soon as I got home. Apparently "O Waly Waly" means "The water is wide" and it's quite a well used folk song which has also had a lot of "pop" recordings. I listened to the Beers family link from Wiki and it turns out that I know the folk song! at uni, our Methsoc were friends with a cuple who livd near by who used to invite us all round for food and folk singing (okay, it sounds geeky, but actually it was great - learning old songs in parts and harmony) and this was one of my favourites! How strange.