STREETS OF NEW YORK
(Liam Reilly)

I was eighteen years old when I went up to Dublin
With a fist full of money and a cartload of dreams
Take your time said my father stop rushing like hell
And remember all is not what it seems to be
For there's fellas that would cut you for the coat on your back
And the watch that you got from your mother
Take your time young bucko and mind yourself well
And will you give this sweet note to my brother
At the time uncle Benji was a policeman in Brooklyn
And my father the youngest looked after the farm
When a phone call from America said 'send the lad over'
And the ole fella said sure it wouldn't do any harm
For I spent my life working this dirty old ground
For a few pints of porter and the smell of a pound
And sure maybe there's something you'll learn and you'll see
And you'll bring it back home and make it easy on me

So I landed at Kennedy on a big yellow taxi
Carried me and my bags through streets in the rain
Me poor heart was thumping around with excitement
I hardly even heard what the driver was saying

We came in the short pathway to the flat land in Brooklyn
To my uncle's apartment on east 53rd
I was feeling so happy, I was humming a song
And I sang your as free as a bird
But to shorten the story what I found out that day
Was that Benji got shot down in an uptown feray
And while I was making my way to New York
Poor Benji was lying in a cold city morgue

Well I phoned up to the ole fella and told him the news
I could tell he could hardly stand up in his shoes
And he wept as he told, go ahead with the plan
And not to forget to be a proud Irish man
So I went up to Nellies beside Forum Road
And I started to learn how lifting the load
But the heaviest thing I carried that year
Was the bitter sweet tugs of my Hometown so dear
I went home that December because the ole fella died
Had to borrow the money from a fellow on this side
And all the bright flowers and grass couldn't hide
The poor ways the face of my father
I sold up the farmyard for what it was worth
And into bag stuck a hand full of earth
And I bordered a train and caught me plane
And I found myself back in the U.S. again

It's been 22 years since I've been back in Dublin
Me kids know to us the correct knife and fork
But I'll never forget the green grass and rivers
As I keep law and order on the Streets of New York

(Recorded by Jolly Beggarman)

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e.b.

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