The Town I Loved so Well

In my memory I will always see

The time that I have loved so well

Where the school played ball by the gas yard wall

And we laughed through the smoke and the smell

Going home in the rain, running up the dark lane

Past the jail and down behind the fountain

Those were happy days in so many, many ways

In the time that I loved so well

In the early morning the surf factory horn

Called women from Craigin, the moor and the bog

While the men on the dole played the mother's role

Fed the children and then walked the dog

And when times got rough there was just about enough

But they saw it through without complaining

For deep inside was a burning pride

In the time that I loved so well

There was music there in the dairy air

Like a language that we could all understand

I remember the day when I earned my first pay

As I played in a small pick-up band

There I spent my youth and to tell you the truth

I was sad to leave it all behind me

For I learned about life and I found a wife

In the time that I loved so well

But when I return how my eyes they burn

To see how a time could be brought to its knees

By the armoured cars and the barbed wire

And the gas that hangs on to every breeze

Now the army's installed by the old gas yard wall

And the damn barbed wire gets higher and higher

With their tanks and their guns, oh my God what have they done

To the time that I loved so well

Now the music's gone though they still carry on

For their spirit's been bruised, never broken

Though they'll not forget still their hearts are set

On tomorrow and peace once again

For what's done is done and what's won is won

But what's lost is lost and gone forever

I can only pray for a bright brand new day

In the time that I loved so well