What, or where, is Sally Gardens.
A place where willow grows wild.
Slan,
D. 
Sally is a type of plant. They used to make baskets out of its long twigs.
So I guess it means something like, the Willow Gardens.
Someone from Ireland, help me out here.
Ooh, Dubhlinn posted at the same time. 
Slan,
D.
Sally Gardens is a tune I can’t ever keep in my head. I always have to look at the music first. This is because it’s so similar to the old time tune I learned long ago called Down in the Willow Garden. I’ve always wondered if there wasn’t a close connection, the music is so much alike, although the lyrics are a bit different.
Sally Gardens by Yeats
It was down by the Sally Gardens, my love and I did meet.
She crossed the Sally Gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree,
But I was young and foolish, and with her did not agree.
In a field down by the river, my love and I did stand
And on my leaning shoulder, she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy , as the grass grows on the weirs
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.
Down by the Sally Gardens, my love and I did meet.
She crossed the Sally Gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree,
But I was young and foolish, and with her did not agree.
Down in the Willow Garden
Down in the willow garden where me and my love did meet
There we sat a-courting my love fell off to sleep
I had a bottle of burgundy wine which my true love did not know
And there I poisoned that dear little girl down by the banks below
I drew my saber through her which was a bloody knife
I threw her in the river which was an awful sight
My father often told me that money would set me free
If I would murder that dear little miss whose name was Rose Connelly
Now he sits by his old cabin door a wiping his tear-brimmed eyes
Mourning for his only son out on the scaffold high
My race is run beneath the sun the devil is waiting for me
For I did murder that dear little girl whose name was Rose Connelly
I used to entertain residents of old folks homes. I usually sang songs or played the harmonica while I accompanied myself with the guitar. I tried to play tunes that the older people would know. However, on one occasion a friend of mine wanted to come along with me and sing some tunes. One of the tunes that he had picked out was “Sally Gardens”. Leroy was a librarian, so he probably found this tune in a songbook at the library. I clearly remember the night of the performance, however, as Leroy in his tenor voice struggled through every verse of the tune while I tried to stay with him on the classical guitar. Looking at the expressions on the faces of the old folks, I would guess that they would rather have heard “Bluetail Fly” on the harmonica. Leroy never asked to sing with me again after that experience, but the tune and words are now imprinted in my memory.
“Sally” comes from the Irish word “sail” (collective: “saileach”), meaning “willow.”
Redwolf
Yeats admitted to ripping the tune off of an existing song, “You Rambling Boys of Pleasure”. Andy Irvine revived the original song, I think when he was still with Planxty.
djm
I took a voice class at the community college about 12 years ago, and will always remember that song, because it was assigned to a young man who had quite a nice singing voice, but considered himself a rocker and couldn’t grasp the value of a vocal class that included folk and show tunes, not to mention some classics in Italian.
I crunched my way through The Water is Wide, Summertime (lower key!), and Vittoria mio core.
Rendered redundant by an earlier edit.
Neat little sentence that 
Slan,
D.
Drats!
I have a good memory, but its still in the case. 
djm
That’s interesting. It must be one of the words that’s common to many indo-european languages–the Latin word for willow is Salix.
OK, I looked it up. The english term (Willow) is also indo-eurpoean (via german, whcih english used to be). However, willow is derived from a root that means “turn or bend”–it describes the bendy nature of willow branches.
I’ve seen “Sally Gardens” and “Sally in the Garden”. Are they different?
Sally Garden and Sally in the Garden are different tunes. Actually, in addition to the song Sally Garden, there’s a popular reel called Sally Gardens. There are also words about Sally in the Garden. One verse that I remember is in the tune/song Sally Ann.
Sally’s in the garden sifting sand,
Susie’s in bed with a hog-eyed man,
I’m a’goin’ home with Sally Ann,
I’m a’goin’ home with Sally Ann.
Probably through a mishearing there’s a tune called Sally in the Garden, Assisting Sam.
I googled sally and willow and found that in the ogham alphabet Saile means willow. That’s obviously related to sail and salix. I have no idea what the ogham thing is about.
In the well known Dublin song “Weile weile walia” constant reference is made to the River Saile.
I have read that this was a very small off shoot of the Liffey long since blocked off and reclaimed as Dublin City expanded.
Slan,
D.
I often go fishing on Bradys land in Cavan during summer on the River Erne. My favourite wee spot is “Flynns pass” which is next to a sally gardens. Its completely non-garden like and runs fairly close to the river. There is a few Willow still growing but an awful lot of Ash grows there now.