Farewell To Dublin

Brian Warfield

Fare thee well until we meet again
Down by the Liffey water
I’ll bid farewell to Dublin
And your streets of cobblestones
I’m going away to leave you
My friends and all the girls too
‘Til I return to see you
Farewell old Dublin town

To the city of our fathers
Where friend and foe had gathered
Where the Norman, Dane and Saxon
Had mingled with the Gael
Administered the kingdom
But soon the pale was reeling
To cradle Irish freedom
In dear old Dublin town

Down by the river Poddle
Through whiskey, stout and coddle
It’s there with all the gentle folk
We drank and laughed and sung
And courted with your daughters
And swam around your waters
And seen your buildings slaughtered
In dear old Dublin town

I remember in my childhood
Your mountains and your wildwood
I heard about your heroes
In the classroom as a boy
Of Thomas Street where Emmet died
In Sackville Place they fought with pride
Of the times when brave Wolfe Tone
Did ride in dear old Dublin town

Her poets they were many
Her writers they were plenty
There was Swift with all his little folk
And Joyce and Molly Bloom
Her characters an unsung gang
There’s “Forty Coats” and old “Bang, Bang”
And “Zozimus” who always sang
Of dear old Dublin town

And now I’m standing on the quay
My destiny’s uncertain
For fortunes have been lost and won
With the dealing of a hand
The past it is a purple haze
The future is an untold maze
And the present is another gaze
At dear old Dublin town