Ah what a sad song. I haven't heard it for a while, so I'd forgotten it.

GOING BACK TO DUBLIN
(Eric Bogle/John Munro)

Paddy is a Dublin Man,
His brogue no one can understand
It's been a while since he left his green isle,
But he's Irish as they come.
Sometimes when Paddy's in the mood,
When the Celt within him fires his blood,
He'll drink some drams and sing a few songs,
And dream of home.

CHORUS
Paddy's singin' well tonight,
Head thrown back and eyes closed tight
He sings his songs of Ireland far away.
And how he's going back to Dublin one fine day.

But Paddy sings a fading song,
He knows he never can go home;
A stranger there and an exile here,
He lives somewhere in between.
And the Ireland of his heart's recall,
If it ever did exist at all,
Now only lives and wistfully moves
Through Paddy's dreams.
CHORUS

Words by Eric Bogle, Music by John Munro
Copyright 1988, Larrikin Press

from The Eric Bogle Songbook

Here's what Bogle says about the song in the notes from the Something of Value CD:

The tune in this song was written by my old mate John Campbell Munro. I'd promised him for at least three years to put lyrics to it, and here it is. The Irish I've met are always threatening to go back to Dublin, or Cork, or Mullingar, or wherever, but somehow never seem to. Emotionally of course, they never left anyway.