“Galway Girl” is a blend of Irish folk tradition and Ed’s signature acoustic pop style. The lyrics depict a man and woman meeting in an Irish pub and dancing and singing the night away.

In his interview for the cover story of GQ’s March 2017 issue, Sheeran explained he had to fight to keep “Galway Girl” on the album. The influence of Van Morrison’s Irish Heartbeat is clear, and Ed believes it will be “fucking massive.”

The term “Galway Girl” describes a black haired and blue eyed woman from the city of Galway and it was coined by Steve Earle’s song of the same title.

The track features award-winning Irish folk band Beoga as co-writers and musicians. He told Irish radio:

I’ve actually got a song on the new album which I think is really gonna explode in Ireland. It would be something to do with the county of Galway. I’ve got a trad band called Beoga, they’re actually from Belfast. It’s a fiddle, a pipe, a bodhran and piano and we really jam.
It’s gonna be really good but I think I will never be able to play another song in Ireland again because that one will just be the song.

In an Track x Track interview with Zane Lowe, Sheeran talked about the process of making the song:

I came up with this song with Foy [Vance], Johnny [McDaid] and Amy [Wadge]. We were recording in Suffolk and we had Beoga, this lrish folk band, come and record some other songs. They have a song called “Minute 5.“ I just said: "Can you try that on it?” They did and it sounded brilliant so we just kept it.