DUBLIN IN MY TEARS
(Brendan Phelan)

I have travelled many lands, and I still can't understand
How sad you have become on my return
Your poor heart is filled with care, sad and old they left you there
Your once bright eyes with sorrow softly burn
I can even sense the change, in the sound of children's games
Childhood dreams and youth's ambition, have all turned to doubts and fears.
It's an age of youth I'm told, but I never felt so old
As I recall old Dublin in my tears.

All the faces that I meet, as I roam each one way street
Reflects the empty statement of the times
And the old cathedral bell, can't be heard above the swell
For the years erase the message in her chimes
All my childhood friends are gone, like the streets where we were born
And the time that it has taken, doesn't seem so many years
They have faded in the gloom, with 'Sap' Kelly of the Coombe
Just a ghost of dear old Dublin in my tears

There were times when jobs were few, there were hungry days we knew
Some days so bad their memory I've cursed
Aa a prayer I said to God there onboard the 'Princess Maud'
That our children would restore a pride we lost
But the past the young forsake, and they're dancing at your wake
While the heart of Dublin's dying but nobody really cares
And the fools as they pass by, laugh to see an old man cry
Now I can't forget old Dublin my tears.

So gather round good friends and true, though our numbers they be few
We'll drink one toast before I cross the foam
Soon in London's dark domain, I'll recall how I became
No more a stranger there than here at home
Now the Liffey flows along, and I listen for her song
And the voice of Big Jim Larkin seems to echo in my ears
But it's just the rafters ring, to her requiem I'll sing
Farewell to dear old Dublin in my tears
Farewell to dear old Dublin in my tears

"Princess Maud" is/was a passenger boat that sailed between Dublin and Holyhead in Wales with passengers (usually economic migrants) heading for London or returning for the annual holidays.

This is the authentic version of the song, I know this because this is how it was sung by it's composer at Frank Harte's wake just a couple of weeks ago. The song Dublin in My Tears was written by Brendan Phelan and the aforementioned 'Sap' Kelly of the Coombe was Brendan's grandfather.

I am pleased to have the opportunity to acknowledge Brendan as the author of this song because he is a great composer and a hell of a nice fellow.
Fergus