There’s a Great Ship Leaving

There’s A Great Ship Leaving

(For the workers of Clearys Department Store, Dublin, who were robbed of their livelihoods by Corporate, gangster vultures.)

There’s a great ship heaving And all her mates stood round; They never thought this day would come When it would run aground. And all the years they gave Were as nothing in this life, They measured them in pleasure Someone’s children, someone’s wife.

There‘s a sadness coming: “What will I do with time? It was something passed unnoticed, It was never really mine!” Any every hour he gave He gave it from the heart He never missed a day, Since the day he got the start.

There’s a ship that’s leaving, You’re not captain, you’re not crew; It’s just another ferry For getting rid of you. And you are not the steersman: No firm hand upon the oar, You were people of the past When you walked out that door.

CHORUS: And its under Cleary’s clock The shadows come and go So many years have passed here Through sunlight, sleet and snow. And the shutters are now down And the windows dark and gone And the city’s lost a mate How could that ship go on.

There are vultures sitting Upon the parapet And though the ship is going down They won’t get their feet wet. They’ve got all this for nothing, They dumped the loyal crew; They did it all for profit, They’ll do the same to you.

And the government’s in hiding No minister was found, To trow a line to save the ship The gangsters ran aground. And across the street where brave men fought A hundred years ago; Their ghosts are turning in their graves But no one wants to know.

CHORUS: For its under Cleary’s clock. Where lovers used to meet. That great ship lit behind them, Was moored on that bright street. Now the shutters are pulled down And the crew to dry-dock gone; Dublin city’s lost its mate, For that great ship has sailed on.

— Frank Callery, Tuesday, 5th January 2016.