Roll back the years to the start of this song
To the riverside strolls and The Hopoles and Swan
And the drunken old men, battered and down
Down by the riverside falling around
To the sound of the waves under Hammersmith Bridge
And up by the Odeon looking for digs,
You're not wanted here, stopped by the law
Coming out of the station just like before
Who's singing that song Daddy, what's it about?
The murdering hordes your grandfather cleared out
Stuck in my mind, Connolly and Pearse,
Records on Sunday, the drink and the tears
Brave Sons Of Derry from the soul of a man
The great Patsy Farrell and screw black and tans,
Mass on a Sunday in the Broadway and home
Passing the winos, the broken old souls.
And we all will join in rousing chorus, for the days that we'll never see again
When our fathers laid a path before us, from suffering to what we have today
Today I was thinking of you coming home,
And the days that have passed, the lonely old roads
That we walked long ago, the wind in the trees
The smell of the cider from the drunks on their knees.
How you must have worked through the muck and the rain
Digging through tunnels to hide others shame,
Those ignorant souls will ne'er understand,
Their own painless history or the pain of the damned.
And we all will join in rousing chorus, for the days that we'll never see again
When our fathers laid a path before us, from suffering to what we have today
Now I think of the future and the ghosts of our past,
The young ones are good ones, sure built to last,
Just like their fathers, the stories remain,
The love and the hardship, the tears and the strain.
So I leave you with this, not much you may say,
Just hold on to the memories of those who have strayed,
Down those lonely old roads to the back of your mind,
It's all that we leave with, the rest stays behind
And we all will join in rousing chorus, for the days that we'll never see again
When our fathers laid a path before us, from suffering to what we have today
To what we have today