Oh I'll sing you a song of days long ago
When people from Galway and the County Mayo
From all over Ireland, they came here to stay
To take up a new life in Amerikay

Chorus
They were ever so happy, they were ever so sad
To grow old in the New World, through good times and bad
The parties and weddings, the ceilis and wakes
When New York was Irish, full of joy and heartaches

Oh we worked on the subways and we ran the saloons
We built all the bridges and we played all the tunes
We put out the fires and we ran city hall
Oh we started with nothing and wound up with it all

You would travel from King's Bridge, to Queens on the town
From High Bridge to Bayridge, from Uptown to Down
From the Eastside to the seaside, sweet summer scenes
We made New York City our island of dreams

Chorus
They were ever so happy, they were ever so sad
To grow old in the New World, through good times and bad
The parties and weddings, the ceilis and wakes
When New York was Irish, full of joy and heartaches

Now I look at the photographs, brittle with time
Of those people I've cherished when New York was mine
Oh how I love, their radiant smiles
How I long for the days when we danced in the isles


I can't tell you who wrote it.

Mick Bracken