rare auld times

Rare auld times
Trad. Arr. Merry Ploughboys

Chorus:
Ring a ring a rosie, 
as the light declines,
I remember Dublin city 
in the rare auld times.

Raised on songs and stories, 
heroes of renown.
The passing tales and glories,
that once was Dublin town.
The hallowed halls and houses,
the haunting children's rhymes.
That once was part of Dublin,
in the rare old times.

Chorus:

Oh me name it is Sean Dempsey
as Dublin as can be,
Born hard and late in Pimlico,
in a house that ceased to be.
By trade I was a cooper,
lost out to redundancy.
Like my house that fell to progress,
my trade's a memory.

And I courted Peggy Diugnan,
as pretty as you please,
A rogue and a child of Mary,
from the rebel Liberties.
I lost her to a student chap,
with skin as black as coal.
When he took her off to Birmingham,
he stole away my soul.

Chorus:

The years have made me bitter,
the gargle dims my brain,
'Cause Dublin keeps on changing,
and nothing seems the same.
The pillar and the Met. have gone,
the Royal long since pulled down,
As the gray unyielding concrete,
makes a city of my town.

Chorus:

Fare thee well sweet Anna Liffey,
I can no longer stay,
And watch the new glass cages,
that spring up along the quay.
My mind's too full of memories,
too old to hear new chimes, 
I'm part of what was Dublin,
in the rare auld times.

Chorus:

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