RARE OLD TIMES
[Pete St. John]
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 children's rhymes,
That once was Dublin city in the rare old times.
Ring-a-ring-a-rosie as the light declines,
I remember Dublin city in the rare old 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.
Ring-a-ring-a-rosie as the light declines,
I remember Dublin city in the rare old times.
The years have made me bitter, the gargles dim my brain,
As Dublin keeps on changing, and nothing seems the same;
The Pillar and the Met are gone, the Royal since pulled down,
As the great unyielding concrete makes a city of my town.
Ring-a-ring-a-rosie as the light declines,
I remember Dublin city in the rare old times.
So farewell, my Anna Liffey, I can no longer stay,
And watch the new glass cages that spring up along the Quay;
My mind's too full of memories, I’m too old to hear new rhymes
There’s a part of me that’s Dublin, in the rare old times.
Ring-a-ring-a-rosie as the light declines,
I remember Dublin city in the rare old times.
Ring-a-ring-a-rosie as the light declines,
I remember Dublin city in the rare old times.
