When New York Was Irish - Celtic Thunder

I’ll sing you a song of days long ago

when people from Galway and the county Mayo

and all over Ireland came over to stay

and take up a new life in Americay

They were ever so happy, they were ever so sad

to grow old in a new world through good times and bad

all the parties and weddings, the ceilis and wakes

when New York was Irish, full of joys and heartbreaks

We worked on the subways, we ran the saloons

We built all the bridges, we played all the tunes

We put out the fires & controlled City Hall

We started with nothing & wound up with it all

You could travel from Kingsbridge to Queens or mid town

from Highbridge to Bay Ridge, from up town to down

from the East Side to the seaside’s sweet summer scenes---

we made New York City our island of dreams

I look at the photos now brittle with time

of the people I cherished when the city was mine

O, how I loved all those radiant smiles

how I long for the days when we danced in the aisles