The Town I loved so well - Noel McLaughlin

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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 gasyard 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 weil.

In the early morning the shirt factory horn
Called women from Creggan, the Moor and the Bog
While the men on the dole played a mother's role
Fed the children and then walked the dogs.

And though times were tough, there was just about enough
And they saw it through without complaining
For deep inside was a burning pride
In the town I loved so weil.

There was music there in the Derry air
Like a language that we could all understand
I remember the day that I earned my first pay
When I played in a 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 learned about life and I'd found a wife
In the town I loved so weil.

But when I returned how my eyes were 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 instatied by that old gasyard wall
And that damned barbed wire gets higher and higher
With their tanks and guns oh my God what have they done
To the town I loved so weil.

Now the music's gone but they carry on
For their spirit's been bruised, never broken
They will not forget, but their hearts are set
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.