The Town I Loved So Well - Paddy Reilly

Paddy Reilly The Town I Loved So Well. at the Opera House in Cork. (written by Phil Coulter) In my memory I will always see the town that I have loved so well where our schools 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 gaol (jail) and down behind the fountain, those were happy days in so many, many ways in the town I loved so well. In the early morning, the shirt factory horn called women from Creggan, the moor and the bog while their men on the dole played a 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 town I loved so well But when I returned how my eyes where burned to see how a town could be brought to its knees by the armoured cars and the bombed out bars and the gas that hangs on to every breeze Now the army's installed by that old gas yard wall and the damned barbed wire gets higher and higher, with their tanks and guns oh my God what have they done to the town I loved so well. Now the music's gone but they 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 and what's lost is lost and gone forever I can only pray for a bright, brand new day in the town I loved so well.