The Town I Loved So Well - Phil Coulter Performed Live at The Freemasons Hall, Dublin on 8th November Soprano Emer Barry Violinist - Mary McCague Harpist - Aisling Ennis
Of a moist nose sniffs and tears in my eyes.. Oh dear, so deeply touched my soul is. Those tears of joy as the soul merges....such beauty voice in melody.. Ensemble of angelic voices I believe... A foretaste of what's to be... as longings of our heavenly abode as in reveal....
I have always loved this song..hearing your story about your Mother and Father touched my heart so much but your voice and with the gorgeous music played so lovely and your singing this made me cry . .Beautiful tears. .. Thank you for sharing this part of you life and you sing Emer this so perfectly your Dad is most definitely grinning , smiling with love and pride above you in heavens 🍀👋 💕
In my memory I will always see The town that I have loved so well; Where our school played ball by the gas yard wall, And we laughed through the smoke and the smell. Going home in the rain, looking up the dark lane, Past the gaol, and down behind the fountain. Those were happy days in so many, many ways... In the town I loved so well. In the early morning, the shirt factory horn Called women from Creggan, the moor, and the bog; While the men on the dole played a mother's role, Fed the children and then walked the dogs. And when times got tough, there was just about enough; But they saw it through without complaining. For deep inside was a burning pride... In the town I loved so well. There was music there in the Derry air, Like a language that we all could understand. I remember the day I earned my first pay, And I played in a small pickup band. There I spent my youth, and to tell you the truth, I was sad to leave it all behind me. For I'd learned about life, and I found me a wife... In the town I loved so well. But when I returned, how my eyes, they have burned, To see how a town could be brought to its knees, By the armoured cars and the bombed-out bars, And the gas that hangs on to every breeze. Now the army's installed by that gas yard wall, And the damned barbed wire gets higher and higher. With their tanks and their guns, Oh My God, what have they done... To the town I loved so well? Now the music's gone but they carry on; For their spirit's been bruised, never broken. They will not forget, for their hearts are set On tomorrow, and peace once again. For what's done is done, and what's won is won, And what's lost is lost and gone forever. I can only pray for a bright, brand new day... In the town I loved so well. 💔🌹☘
HI EMER TOP OF THE MORNING TO YOU AND ALL YOU LADS AND LASSES ON THIS FINE ST. PATRICK'S DAY !!!! HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY EVERYONE !!!! HEY EMER I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO HEARING YOU AND AFFINITI ON YOUR ST. PATRICK'S DAY CONCERT AT 8 PM TONIGHT EST. GOD BLESS YOU AND HAVE A GREAT ST. PATRICK'S DAY AND EVERY DAY !!!!!!
Came from their 'O Holy Night' -version, best I ever heard. She is damn good! And I like the arrangements with the harp and violin (some of my favorite instruments along with piano). I'm writing this will listening to the beautiful song. God she IS GOOD.
Ha! Me too! I was searching local Sheffield carols to help me sing in my local choir and YT offered me Oh Holy Night by Emer - it blew me away. I've never heard a better version. Now I'm addicted. I also love the harp and the violin.
you just brought me to tears...this is amazing - you are amazing - I'm speechless! thank you for your music and passion! Greetings from good ol' germany...
Dear Emer... I have loved this nostalgic and tragic old song since Phil first composed and recorded it back in '73, and have shed many tears, listening to it, over the years. No surprise that it was your Dad's and your mother's favorite. But your beautiful version of it is the loveliest, and also the most heartbreaking, that I have ever heard. And I am sorry that I did not write and tell you that years ago, when I first heard your recording of it here. I have posted the verses, exactly as you have sung them here, with the small differences from Phil's original lyrics, in my previous comment. I hope that you will allow them to remain here. I spent a few very enjoyable hours this past week listening to you sing them, over and over, to be sure I had heard and transcribed them accurately. I remember the years of "The Troubles" vividly, since I am now a "young" seventy-six. Things were beginning to get horrible in Belfast, Ulster, Derry (of course) and so many other towns in Eire at about the time I returned from my year in Vietnam and was leaving the Army in 1969. So I knew full well about the horrors that were going on over there, that it was bound to get Much worse before it got better, and what it is like to be surrounded by barbed wire and razor wire, and those terrible smells hanging in the air. And believe me when I tell you that there were also many tears shed, and hearts broken, on this side of the Atlantic over what was happening in Northern Ireland during those years. I cannot remember where or when I first heard the quote... "The Irish story is an old story, but it's a sad story." But it has been in my head for as long as I can remember. Thank you, again, for your beautiful rendition of "The Town I Loved So Well", Phil's masterpiece. Hard to believe that it's been eight years since that concert. And Mary's closing notes from the last measure of "Danny Boy" are just perfect here. Her accompaniment and, of course, Aisling's on her lovely seven-pedal harp are absolutely lovely. 💖☘ Much aloha to you from here. 🌈🌴
She is Irish to her core; Born and raised in the Dublin suburbs. And I do not hear a trace of "British English" in her voice. A trace of "American English", perhaps. ☘
Listen carefully to the lyrics, and you'll find the song to be politically neutral, though it does seem more focused on one community. Honestly I have no idea what the the Union Jack flying community thought about the British Army, with their tanks and Alvis Saracens on the streets and the erection of barbed wire barriers. Enlighten me.
I think that you and @jamesdolan4042 may, perhaps, have missed the message of Phil's beautiful masterpiece of a lament, taking two of the lines in this last verse out of context. The whole of the final verse tells the whole story of the hearts of these people of Derry, his childhood hometown, during those terrible years of "The Troubles", their determination to get through those times, put the pieces of their lives back together, and try to find happiness once again. "Now the music's gone but they carry on; For their spirit's been bruised, never broken. They will not forget, for their hearts are set On tomorrow, and peace once again. For what's done is done, and what's won is won, And what's lost is lost and gone forever. I can only pray for a bright, brand-new day... In the town I loved so well."
