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