The Ha’Penny Bridge, Dublin

The Ha’penny Bridge

On the ha’penny bridge we step over;
The blind man, he plays Killaloe,
We head for the cave of the Merchant’s Arch
On our way back from Dublin aZoo.

And the waters of bold Anna Liffey,
The same that we saw from the park, 
Pass under, so green and so whiffy, 
As we rush to get home before dark.

Chorus
Cross over! Cross over! Now don’t be shy You’re nearer the water, nor the sky, Though your heart might be cold as a fridge, Yer safe on the Ha’penny Bridge

If you bounce on the bridge and it rattles
It won’t fall — after two hundred years!
And the smell from the Liffey will go in a jiffy
You’ll forget all your tremors and fears.

For yer made o’ the stuff o’ the coddle An’ yer ole’wan was got on the quay, Yer father came up be the Poddle In the year of our Lord ’23.

Like the old Iron Duke it was made to last;
They shipped it from England back then,
It was cast in two bits, and the town was aghast,
When its Ha’Pennies gladdened rich men.

When the Corpo, they save up to paint it, 
The silver then shines in the light,
The beggar sits mum, wet cardboard and bum
And his note begs a bed for the night.
 Chorus Cross over! Cross over! Now don’t be shy You’re nearer the water, nor the sky, Though your heart might be cold as a fridge, Yer safe on the Ha’penny Bridge.

— © Frank Callery, Thursday, May 19th 2016.