Rare Auld Times

Raised on songs and stories, heroes of renown The passing tales and glories that once was Dublin Town The hallowed halls and houses, the haunting childrens' rhymes That once was part Dublin in the rare auld times

Ring-a-ring-a-rosie, as the light declines I remember Dublin City in the rare auld times

My 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 Dignam, 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

Ring-a-ring-a-rosie, as the light declines I remember Dublin City in the rare auld times

The years have made me bitter, the gargles dims me brain For 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 So fare thee well, sweet Anna Liffey, I can no longer stay And watch the new glass cages spring up along the quay My mind's too full of memories, too old to hear new chimes I once was part of Dublin, in the rare auld times

Ring-a-ring-a-rosie, as the light declines I remember Dublin City in the rare auld times

Ring-a-ring-a-rosie, as the light declines I remember Dublin City in the rare auld times