The Disappearance of Old Dublin – To Clearys

The Disappearance of Old Dublin – To Clearys

The Disappearance of Old Dublin 17th June 2015 by/Tony Gorman

The fading sights of old Dublin Town
It started when old Nelson came down
If he stood there today his pension be ripe
And tourists be showing him on IPod and Skype

And the Metropole followed by closing its doors
No more had our town got a place for its whores
For the girls plied their trade with a lot of fineness
Showing all their essentials by the way they would dress

In the Metropole ballroom we learned how to dance
With our shirts well starched and a crease in our pants
As the Metropole band played a medley of songs
We lurched with those girls with a mind full of longs

The Met shut its doors in nineteen seventy two
And the building knocked down what a strange thing to do
As the building back then was a landmark to all
It saddened us Dubs by its demise and its fall

And the tenement flats where our parents were born
With no flushing toilets just a bucket of spurn
Have had a vast facelift since our people moved on
Redesigned for the yuppies now the old days are gone

And now poor old Clerys has wrapped up as well
Will they gut it all out only leaving its shell?
Or will it reopen again as a store
And bring back the trade that it had once before

Will we still have our meeting place under the clock?
Will the windows have mannequins wearing a frock?
Will the ballroom reopen bringing back days of old?
Is it bound for demolition, is that why it’s sold?

Soon to us old ones our town will be gone
But the times that we had there will live on and on
And we’ll keep in a photo the Dublin we knew
And in time by our age we will disappear too
Farewell old Dublin Town now let us welcome the new!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I was working in the Metropole Cocktail Bar when it closed up on the 11th March 1972 and was there when Old Nelson blew his stack.
The Met was a great meeting place and the Long Bar was renowned for having a percentage of ladies of the night plying their trade to whoever required it, as us Dubs would say “fair play to them”
It almost broke my heart when leaving the building knowing this was the last time I would step out of its doors so I well understand how the staff of Clerys feels.
Not long after that I had to leave my homeland to seek employment in England and have been here since then.
I have watched all the changes of old buildings being knocked down and new buildings going up and some of the new ones don’t suit their locations as they lack character.
I hope they don’t demolish Clerys as it’s such a lovely building and complements the other buildings of past that are still standing in Dublin.
Hopefully it will reopen as a store and those unfortunates that are out of work due to its closure will be reemployed there in the future.
I wish all Clerys staff well for the future and hope something will turn up for each and every one of them

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