Rare Auld Times - The High Kings

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 childrens' rhymes

That once was part Dublin in the rare auld times

Ring-a-ring-a-rosey, as the light declines

I remember Dublin City in the rare auld 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

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 Dignam, 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, she took away my soul

The years have made me bitter, the gargle dims me brain

For Dublin keeps on changing, and nothing seems the same

The Pillar and the Met have gone, the Royal long since pulled down

As the grey unyielding concrete, makes a city of my town

So fare thee well sweet Anna Liffey, I can no longer stay

And watch the new glass cages, spring up along the quay

My mind’s too full of memories, too old to hear new chimes

And once was part of Dublin, in the rare auld times