Farewell to the Hill 7th November 2014
The seventies were a joy for me
As I worked upon the Hill
In a bar’s of double identities
One with an upper class grill
The other bar was for locals
True working class city folk
An honest bunch of customers
That enjoyed a laugh and joke
Some were Dockers others farmers
Who kept pigsty’s on the Hill
And collected waste from kitchens
That they used for their pigs swill
The restaurant bar was different
The customers were a snobbish bunch
They were made up of Ministers from Dail Eireann
Who would go there for their lunch
They talked the politicians talk
Money this and money that
If you couldn’t pay your taxes
I’m sure they’d confiscate your cat
I preferred the local people
They were honest to the core
But those politicians I met there
Their snobbish ways were quite a bore
When I left to seek new fortune
Across the Irish Sea
I remembered all my friends there
And what they meant to me
For they never really had a lot
But they always seem to give
They would say money isn’t everything
You just need enough to live
And their happiness it told the tale
A lesson learned for my new start
And I went through life with their philosophy
Engraved within my heart
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Before I joined the exodus of lads seeking work in England in the early 70s I worked as a barman in Dublin.
My first job when I was fourteen was apprentice barman in a Dublin Airport cocktail bar.
I served a four year apprenticeship and when I became a fully-fledged barman I had to move on as there was no room for another barman in any of the bars there.
My next job was in the Metropole Long Bar in O’Connell Street.
I loved my work there as the lads I worked with back then were some of the best and although its forty years ago I still stay in touch with some of them.
My last job after the Metropole closed down in 1972 was in Crowley’s of Hill Street.
I enjoyed working there as the locals were some of the best people I had met in life.
Although things were hard for them back then they never moaned they just got on with their lives with a smile on their faces.
Hill Street Dublin
They were a close inner city community who I admired for their philosophy in life that money wasn’t everything.
I hope some of them are around today to read this.
I will always admire each and every one of them.
