Fraser Bruce 

RING-A-RING-A-ROSIE (Pete St. John/Saint Music)

 

 

 

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

 

Chorus

Ring – a – ring – a Rosie, as the lights decline
I remember Dublin city, in the rare old times

 

My name it is Sean Dempsey as Dublin as can be
Born hard and late in Pimlico in a house that ceased to be
Me trade it was a cooper lost to redundancy
Like my house that fell to progress, my trade to memory

 

I courted Peggy Duignan as pretty as you please
A rage and child of Mary in the rebel liberties
I lost her to a student lad with skin as black as coal
When he took her off to Birmingham, she took away my soul

 

The years have made me bitter and drink has dimmed me brain
And Dublin keeps on changing and nothing seems the same
The Metropole and Pillar are gone

And The Royal long since pulled down

As the grey unyielding concrete makes a city of our town

 

So fare thee well Anna Liffey I can no longer stay
And watch the new glass cages that rise along the quay
My minds too full of memories too old to hear new chimes
I’m part of what was Dublin in the rare old times