Dear Green Place

It was by the clear Molendinar Burn

Where it meets and runs with the river Clyde

And they tell the tale of the holy one

Who was fishing down by the riverside

A holy man, from Fife he came

His name they say was Kentigern

And by the spot were the fish was caught

The dear green place was born

Now the salmon ran through the river stream

And they salted them by the banks of Clyde

And the faces glowed as the silver flowed

The place arose by the riverside

There was cloth to dye and hose to buy

The traders came from miles around

And they raised a glass to the dear green place

The place that was a town

There is a town that once was green and a river flowed to the sea

The river flows forever on, but the dear green place is gone

When the furnace came to fire the iron

And folk were thrown from their farmland

Then the irishmen and the highland men

And the hungry men came with willing hands

They wanted work, a place to live, their empty bellies needed filled

And the farmyard was another world

From the dirty overcrowded mill

Now you may have heard of the foreign trade

And fortunes made by tobacco lords

But the working man slaved his life away

And an early grave was his sole reward

A dreary room, a crowded slum, disease and hunger everywhere

And the price to pay was another day

To fight the anger and despair

A thousand years have been here and gone (it is gone)

Since Kentigern saw the banks of Clyde (it is gone)

How many dreams and how many tears (it is gone)

In a thousand years of a city's life (it is gone)

It was by the clear Molendinar Burn (it is gone)

Where it meets and runs with the river Clyde (it is gone)

Perhaps tomorrow it yet may be (it is gone)

The dear green place again (it is gone)