The Town I Loved So Well (Phil Coulter, 1973)

The Town I Loved So Well is a popular song about Derry and the impact of the Troubles. It was written by Phil Coulter, one of Northern Ireland’s best selling songwriters and musicians. Coulter was born and raised in Derry, the son of a Catholic who served in the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). He received piano lessons before studying music at Queen’s University in Belfast. During the 1960s, Coulter penned several successful songs and worked with artists such as Tom Jones and Van Morrison. He formed a songwriting partnership with Scottish musician Bill Martin and together they wrote a string of successful pop songs, including Cliff Richards’ Congratulations, Sandie Shaw’s Puppet on a String and Slik’s Forever and Ever. Written during the violent early 1970s, The Town I Loved So Well begins with three verses of nostalgic sentiment about Coulter’s childhood in Derry. It then hints at how the Troubles and Direct Rule have changed Derry, before closing with hopeful expectations for the future. The Town I Loved So Well has been performed by many Irish artists, including Luke Kelly, The Dubliners, Shane MacGowan and Nathan Carter.

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, running up the dark lane
Past the jail 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 the 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 dog.
And when times got tough there was just about enough
And they saw it through without complaining
For deep inside was a burning pride
For 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 that I earned my first pay
When I played in a small pick up band.
There I spent my youth and to tell you the truth
I was sad to leave it all behind me
For I learned about life and I found a wife
In the town I loved so well.

But when I returned, how my eyes 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 an army’s installed by that old 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 spirits been bruised, never broken
They will not forget but 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 love so well.


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This page was written by Jennifer Llewellyn and Steve Thompson. To reference this page, use the following citation:
J. Llewellyn and S. Thompson, “The Town I Loved So Well (1973)”, Alpha History, accessed [today’s date], https://alphahistory.com/northernireland/the-town-i-loved-so-well-1973/.