Last Call for Youghal – All Aboard !

I remember when I was very small

We used to go down to Youghal 

We would travel there by train

In Summer sunshine and showers of rain

About the weather we didn’t care

As long as the train got us there

Those carriages with those compartments

And a comfortable guest house, no fancy apartments

Most of the time it was just for the day

But once a year we got to stay

For a long weekend or a week or more

And spent our days on the sea shore

Building sandcastles and searching for treasure

Hours of joy and simple pleasure

Our dad would build a car out of sand

Before the tide would claim back the strand

There were walks along the promenade 

Ice cream lollies and lemonade 

Sandwiches like doorsteps and all home made

Some days were too hot, we had to stay in the shade

Tanora and taytos and a bag of treats

Clove rock and bullseyes and barley sugar sweets

And if we were really  good, a stick of rock from Youghal

Sure we were so full, we could hardly talk at all ..

At night we had the Merries, or Perk’s fairground 

With chairoplanes that spun us around and around

Swing boats that made you dizzy so you could hardly stand

And cries of “Look Mam  – No hands !”

A Carousel with galloping horses, like a wild cowboy

Chasing them Injuns and whooping with joy

And the bumpers that both frightened and thrilled

It’s a wonder no one ever got killed !

The old town walls, the gate tower and clock

Where they filmed “Moby Dick’” down by the dock

The strand seemed like an endless stretch of gold

A paradise for both young and old

In a world of excitement and the imagination 

To our innocent minds there was no limitation

Those halcyon days we thought would never end at all

Yes I still remember those days, when we went down to Youghal.

c Denis Murphy 16 July 2020.