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Over the Bar for a Pint

Two men drinking at a Dublin bar

Over the Bar for a Pint

Cross over the Liffey’s waters
Across the Ha’penny Bridge
And ponder as you look down
At its water’s like a fridge

For its winter time in Ireland
As you head for Temple Bar
It’s the liveliest place in Dublin
With the entertainment well on par

In some quarters there’s rock and roll music
Others have live ballad nights
Some people go there just to party
Others go to see the sights

And the bar food is advertised
On the billboards everywhere
Some call out their succulent menu
In a jovial Dublin air

But I just go there for the buzz
Enjoying everything that’s there
From the cobbled streets I walk on
To meals and drinks I share

As there’s always new friends to talk to
While the Guinness freely flows
For us dubs will talk forever
That’s the way our friendships grows

And next morning with our sore heads
We’ll remember what we done
When we went to Temple Bar
To down some pints and had some fun

When I get home on holidays one of the things I love to do is ramble around some of the old areas of Dublin that bring back fond memories.
Myself and my wife Geraldine loved going to Harold’s Cross greyhound racing track, it was a great night out for us.
We never won a lot but the buzz was always there and we both loved it.
One of the other places we loved going was Temple Bar and would head there after our usual walk around town.
We would walk from Jarvis Street across Ha’penny Bridge and stop to see the lights along each bank reflect off the Liffey’s water’s.

There was always something magical about the reflection of the light’s dancing in the darkness on the waves in the river.
Sadly when I go there now I only have memories of those times when I had my beloved by my side.
My wife loved going for a meal in Temple Bar and afterwards we’d have a drink in one of the bars that had ballads playing.
I still go there when I’m home on holidays and have a meal with my brother and sisters as it brings back fond memories of those happy times with my wife.
Now when I stop on the Ha’penny Bridge I feel my wife is still beside me watching those twinkling lights on the water surface and I tell her “they’re dancing just for you”.

4 Responses

  1. Norma Hills says:

    Just to say what a great writer you are Tony.
    My family love all your poems.
    keep it up.
    Norma

  2. Tony Gorman says:

    Hi Eoghan
    I just want to say thanks for the fantastic collections of photos you selected to complement my poems.
    Love them all, a very clever selection.
    Look forward to the next one.
    Tony Gorman

  3. Eoghan Brunkard says:

    You’re very welcome Tony,
    I absolutely love the poems, uplifting, honest and at the right level of nostalgia
    I think they really add a dimension to the site and that is always born out in the
    viewing figures.

    We use a programme called google analytics, it tells us which material is popular, your poems are consistently read by a large readership, you’re getting quite the fan base here!

  4. Tony Gorman says:

    Farewell to the Hill 7th November 2014 by/ Tony Gorman

    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

    ————————
    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.
    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.

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