Although this song was written by the Brit Ewan MacColl in 1949 about a town in Lancashire, England, the Celtic punk band the Pogues, led by Irish singer/songwriter Shane MacGowan, made it a chart-topping hit in 1985. As such, it is often thought to be of Irish origins. Nonetheless, it is a great tune for a pub sing.
I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
I kissed a girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town, dirty old town
Clouds a drifting across the moon
Cats a prowling on their beat
Spring’s a girl in the street at night
Dirty old town, dirty old town
Heard a siren from the docks
Saw a train set the night on fire
Smelled the spring in the smokey wind
Dirty old town, dirty old town
I’m going to make a good sharp axe
Shining steel tempered in the fire
Will chop you down like an old dead tree
Dirty old town, dirty old town
Dirty old town, dirty old town
