Rare old times

Raised on songs and stories
the heroes of reknown
The passing tales and glories
that once was Dublin-Town
That hallowed halls and houses,
the haunting children´s rhymes
That once war Dublin City
in the rare ould times

Well, me name it is Sean Dempsey,
as Dublin as can be
Born hard and late in Pimlico
in a house that ceased to be
By trade I was a cooper,
lost out to redundancy
Like my house that fell to progress
my trade´s a memory

And I courted Peggy Dignan,
as pretty as you please
A rogue and a child of Mary
from the Rebel Liberties
I lost her to a student chap
with skin as black as coal
When he took her off to Birmingham,
she took away my soul

The years have made me bitter,
the cargo dims me brain
´Cause Dublin keeps on changing
and nothing seems the same
The Pillar and the Met have gone,
the Royal long since pulled down
As the grey unyielding concrete
makes a city of my town

Fare thee well sweet Anna Liffey,
I can no longer stay
And watch the new glass cages
that spring up along the quay
Me mind´s too full of memories,
too old, to hear new chimes
I´m a part of what was Dublin
in the rare ould times

Ring a ring a rosy as the light declines
I remember Dublin City in the rare ould times