The Town I Loved So Well

In my memory I will always see

the town that I have loved so well

where our school played ball by the gasyard 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 town I have loved so well.

In the early morning the shirt-factory horn

called women from Craigeen the Moor and the Bog

while the man on the dole played the mother's role

fed the children and then trained the dogs.

And when times got rough there was just about enough

but they saw it through without complaining

for deep inside was a burning pride

for the town I loved so well.

There was music there in the Derry air

like a language that we could all understand

I remember the day when I earned my first pay

as I played in the 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'd learned 'bout life and I've found a wife

in the town I loved so well.

But when I returned how my eyes have 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 gasyard wall

and the damned barbed wire gets higher and higher

with their tanks and their guns, oh my god what have they done

to the town I loved so well.

Now the music's gone but I still carry on

for their spirit's been bruised never broken

they will not forget for their hearts are aset

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.