north london boy

I should have been a north London boy an Irishman that’s well hard

I’d make me way from pub to pub along the Holloway Boulevard

And every Saturday afternoon an Arsenal supporter

But the biggest thrill of all I got was Mrs Mac Neil’s daughter

Somewhere close to Finsbury Park in 1963 – there’s forty children in the class and then there’s me

And almost every playtime I could see the danger – there’s forty sons of Erin – and about one Saxon stranger

I wish my dad left Dublin and came over instead

I wish my family’d caught a train leaving Holyhead

I’m glad my Dad never had to hear my mother cry

When they knocked upon another door ‘no Irish need apply’

I wasn’t much political I never was a Fenian

The Knights of St Columba and later the Catenians

And sometimes on a Saturday I might have had a session

And once in every blue moon I’d make it to confession

I wish my Dad had had a job in the building trade

I wish that I had followed him ‘cos now I’d have it made

I’d have joined the Allied Irish Bank working in New York

Or been a self made millionaire living in Southgate Broad walk

I wish had been Irish before it could be cool

Sharper than a razor when they thought I was a fool

I wish my dad had owned a pub out in County Clare

And now I was the London man with the stocks and shares

Long before Riverdance and long before the stout

Long before Father Ted when Irishmen were out

Long before the ‘Doctors and the bloody plastic pub

On Paddys night with the Shamrock Showband

Dancing at the club

I can see old Mrs Mac’ in the Mother’s Union

I can see Maureen at our first communion

Looking like an angel in her little veil of white

But ten years later Maureen wore her jeans so tight

Maureen was my first love from the first time that I saw her

I loved her then I’d marry her for richer or for poorer

But Maureen wouldn’t look my way though I gave my heart up for her

She was looking for a lad from the Irish Diaspora


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