"The Town I Loved So Well" is a song written by

Phil Coulter Philip Coulter (born 19 February 1942) is an Irish musician, songwriter and record producer from Derry, Northern Ireland. He was awarded the Gold Badge from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in October 2009. Coulter ha ...

about his childhood in Derry,

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. The first three verses are about the simple lifestyle he grew up with in Derry, while the final two deal with

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

, and lament how his placid hometown had become a major military outpost, plagued with violence. The final verse includes a message of hope for a "bright, brand new day", saying "They will not forget but their hearts are set / on tomorrow and peace once again". Stuart Bailie has described the song as one of the few "nuanced" songs during the Troubles that both Unionists and Republicans could sing.

Background

While Phil Coulter had written several Top 10

pop songs Pop Airplay (also called Mainstream Top 40, Pop Songs, and Top 40/ CHR) is a 40-song music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played on a panel of Top 40 radio stations in the Un ...

in the late 1960s (including Eurovision entries '' Puppet on a String'' and ''

Congratulations Congratulations may refer to: Film and television *'' Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest'', 2005 television programme to commemorate its fiftieth anniversary Music Albums * ''Congratulations'' (album), an album by ...

''), collaborations as a producer with

The Dubliners The Dubliners were an Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in personnel over their fifty-ye ...

and

Luke Kelly Luke Kelly (17 November 1940 – 30 January 1984) was an Irish singer, folk musician and actor from Dublin, Ireland. Born into a working-class household in Dublin city, Kelly moved to England in his late teens and by his early 20s had become i ...

, led to him writing a number of folk songs with more "grown-up" themes including those with a political aspect. Kelly had encouraged Coulter to contribute his opinions to the Irish conflict, but although his first attempt, '' Free the People'', was successful in Ireland, Coulter felt it had too much sloganeering. Coulter, a nationalist, drew on both his own experience and that of his father (a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary) to create a more nuanced lament for Derry, although he added that extreme unionists initially dismissed it as a "rebel song." ''The Town I Loved So Well'' was written against a backdrop of

the Troubles in Derry The city of Derry, Northern Ireland, was severely affected by the Troubles. The conflict is widely considered to have begun in the city, with many regarding the Battle of the Bogside (an inner suburb of the city) in 1969 as the beginning of the ...

, and released in 1973 on The Dubliners '' Plain and Simple'' album, which Coulter produced.

Covers

In addition to its long association with Luke Kelly,

Paddy Reilly Patrick "Paddy" Reilly (born 18 October 1939) is an Irish folk singer and guitarist. Born in Rathcoole, County Dublin, he is one of Ireland's most famous balladeers and is best known for his renditions of "The Fields of Athenry", "Rose of Alle ...

also had some success with the song, charting for a total of 18 weeks at different times during the 1970s. The song has also been covered by

Dexys Dexys Midnight Runners (currently officially Dexys, their former nickname, styled without an apostrophe) are an English pop rock band from Birmingham, with soul influences, who achieved major commercial success in the early to mid-1980s. They a ...

The High Kings The High Kings is an Irish folk group formed in Dublin in 2008. The band consists of Finbarr Clancy, Brian Dunphy, Darren Holden, and Paul O'Brien. As of 2020, the group had released five studio albums, four live albums, and two live DVDs, an ...

The Irish Tenors The Irish Tenors are a singing trio from Ireland that was started in 1998 by a group of television producers for a PBS special ''The Irish Tenors''. They have since recorded five PBS specials and eight albums. The group's members are Declan ...

, Johnny Logan (on his 2007 album '' The Irish Connection''), and

Nathan Carter Nathan Kane Tyrone Carter (born 28 May 1990) is a British-born Irish country music singer based in the UK and Ireland. He has released thirteen studio albums and six live albums as of December 2022, five of which peaked at number one, and four ...

(on his 2012 album ''The Live Show''). The song has also been translated and covered in other languages, including by

Tri Yann Tri Yann () is a French band from Nantes who play folk rock music drawing on traditional Breton folk ballads. The band was founded in 1969 by Jean Chocun, Jean-Paul Corbineau and Jean-Louis Jossic – all of whom remained members – hence th ...

, a Breton band, under the title "''La Ville que J'ai Tant Aimée''" with lyrics in French. Dafydd Iwan recorded a translation in Welsh ("''Y Dref a Gerais i Cyd''", 'The Town I Loved So Long'), with

Hannes Wader Hannes Wader (born Hans Eckard Wader on 23 June 1942) is a German singer-songwriter (" Liedermacher"). He has been an important figure in German leftist circles since the 1970s, with his songs covering such themes as socialist and communist resis ...

recording a German version ("''Kleine Stadt''") - a tribute to Wissembourg in Eastern France, favourite town of his -, and

Lillebjørn Nilsen Bjørn "Lillebjørn" Falk Nilsen (born 21 December 1950) is a Norwegian singer-songwriter and folk musician. He was born in Oslo, and is considered by some to be the leading "voice of Oslo", thanks to numerous classic songs about the city from th ...

a Norwegian version ("''Byen Jeg Kjente Som Min''"). In 1984, a performance of the song by Jim McCann was used as the theme music for the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

made-for-television film ''Children in the Crossfire''.

Notable performances

An instrumental version of the song was played at the funeral of the Northern Ireland politician and Nobel laureate

John Hume John Hume (18 January 19373 August 2020) was an Irish nationalist politician from Northern Ireland, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the recent political history of Ireland, as one of the architects of the Northern Ire ...

on 5 August 2020. Hume and Coulter were close friends, and the song was said to be a favourite of Hume's.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Town I Loved So Well, The Irish songs Songs written by Phil Coulter The Dubliners songs 1973 songs Songs about The Troubles (Northern Ireland)

Background

Covers

Notable performances

See also

References