The Town I Loved So Well

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In my memory, I will always see
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The town that I have loved so well
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Where our school played ball by the gas yard wall
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And they laughed through the smoke and the smell

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Going home in the rain, running up the dark lane
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Past the jail, and down behind the fountain
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Those were happy days in so many, many ways
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In the town I loved so well


[Verse 2]
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In the early morning the shirt factory horn
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Called women from Creggan, the moor, and the bog
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While the men on the dole played a mother's role
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Fed the children and then walked the dog

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And when times got tough there was just about enough
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And they saw it through without complaining
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For deep inside was a burning pride
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In the town I loved so well


[Verse 3]
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There was music there in the Derry air
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Like a language that we all could understand
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I remember the day that I earned my first pay
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When I played in a small pick-up band

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There I spent my youth, and to tell you the truth
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I was sad to leave it all behind me
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For I learned about life, and I found a wife
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In the town I loved so well


[Verse 4]
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But when I returned, how my eyes have burned
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To see how a town could be brought to its knees
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By the armoured cars and the bombed-out bars
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And the gas that hangs on to every breeze

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Now the army's installed by that old gas yard wall
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And the damned barbed wire gets higher and higher
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With their tanks and their guns, oh my God, what have they done
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To the town I loved so well


[Verse 5]
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Now the music's gone but they carry on
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For their spirits been bruised, never broken
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They will not forget but their hearts are set
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On tomorrow and peace once again

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For what's done is done and what's won is won
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And what's lost is lost and gone for ever
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I can only pray for a bright, brand new day
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In the town I love so well