The Rare Ould Times

(album: Drunken Lullabies - 2002)

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 part of Dublin, in the rare ould times

Ring a ring a rosey
As the light declines
I remember 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
My trade, I was a cooper
Lost out to redundancy
Like my house that fell to progress
My trade's a memory

Well, I courted Peggy Dignam
As pretty as you please
A rogue 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
Well, she took away my soul

Ring a ring a rosey
As the light declines
I remember Dublin City
In the rare ould times

Well, the years have made me bitter
The gargle 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

Ring a ring a rosey
As the light declines
I remember Dublin City
In the rare ould times

Fare thee well, sweet 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
Too old to hear new chimes
I'm part of what was Dublin
In the rare ould times

Ring a ring a rosey
As the light declines
I remember Dublin City
In the rare ould times