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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Opening song of my Album ‘Songs from a Life — Dear Dirty Dublin’ performed by Frank Callery, Paul grant and Martin Murray.
    Purchasable with gift card

      €1 EUR  or more

     

  • Pre-order the Full Digital Album

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in a jewel case with four page front matter and back cover showing track titles and durations. Also comes with a downlaodable Lyrics Book which is fully tagged for persons with a vision impairment; it can be read on any screen reader. It gives background to the songs and the author.

    Includes digital pre-order of Songs from a Life — Dear Dirty Dublin. You get 4 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
    digital album releases February 22, 2022
    item ships out within 2 days
    edition of 500 
    Purchasable with gift card

      €12 EUR or more 

     

lyrics

Dear Dirty Dublin

’Twas down be the markets I heard an ould song —
A balladeer’s voice, above the loud throng —
He sang of his city, a place I loved too!
It was ‘Dear Dirty Dublin’, and he made her look new.

I knew her great streets, her squalor, her people,
And each landmark place, each spire and each steeple;
The rain-sodden walls of each lost tenement —
Where food it was scarce, and the rent, mostly spent!

Chorus
“Ah! Me Dear Dirty Dublin” the balladeer sang,
While round the Ball Alley, Saint Michan’s bell rang
Its chimes to the streets by the green Liffey’s side —
His love for his city he just couldn’t hide.

There are places we love, and places we leave;
There are fond, happy times for which we might grieve,
And memory, she stores that bright gold in her chest,
The city, the home — the place you loved best.

Chorus
But no matter the distance, none I’ve loved more
Than the Liffey-side streets and her laughter, her lore,
The place of my childhood, my own native home —
Ah! Dublin, you’re nearer the further I roam.

I’ve rambled the world and seen the great places,
The wealth and the riches, all poverty’s faces;
And I thought of old Dublin, her broken-down charm,
Like a sweet Mott out strolling, her chap on her arm.

She’s Rosie of Moore Street, she’s Molly Malone,
She’s brave Rosie Hackett — all women I’ve known;
And here at this distance, I keep her in mind,
‘My Dear Dirty Dublin’, that I left behind.

Chorus
But no matter the distance, none I’ve loved more
Than the Liffey-side streets and her laughter, her lore,
The place of my childhood, my own native home —
Ah! Dublin, you’re nearer the further I roam.

— © Frank Callery, Monday, October 12th., 2020.

credits

from Songs from a Life — Dear Dirty Dublin, track released February 22, 2022
Song and melody written by: Frank Callery.

Vocals: Frank Callery.
Guitars and Keyboards: Paul Grant.
Tenor Banjo, Mandolin and Octave Mandolin: Martin Murray

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Frank Callery Kilkenny, Ireland

Frank Callery is an award-winning songwriter, poet, editor, journalist and historian, who revels in the words and music of his heritage and tradition. A Dubliner, he has lived in Co. Kilkenny for the past 25 years.
I have written hundreds of songs and arranged song settings of the works of W.B. Yeats, Winnifred Mary Letts, John M. Synge, Robin Flower (Bláithín), Eva Gore-Booth and Moira O'Neill. ... more

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