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 we 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

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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 dogs
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And when times got rough there was just about enough
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But 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

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There was music there in the Derry air
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like a language that we could all could understand
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I remember the day when I earned my first pay
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As 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'd found a wife
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in the town I loved so well

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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 armored cars and the bombed out bars
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and the gas that hangs on to every tree
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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

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Now the music's gone but they carry on
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For their spirit's 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 forever
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I can only pray for a bright, brand new day
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in the town I loved so well