"The Town I Loved So Well" is a song written by Phil Coulter about his childhood in Derry, Northern Ireland. The first three verses are about the simple lifestyle he grew up with in Derry, while the final two deal with the Troubles, and lament how his placid hometown had become a major military outpost, plagued with violence.
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Background
While Phil Coulter had written several Top 10 pop songs in the late 1960s (including Eurovision entries Puppet on a String and Congratulations), collaborations as a producer with the The Dubliners and Luke Kelly, led to him writing a number of folk songs with more "grown-up" themes including those with a political aspect. The Town I Loved So Well was written against a backdrop of the Troubles in Derry, and released in 1973 on The Dubliners Plain and Simple album, which Coulter produced.
Covers
The song has been covered by Dexys, the High Kings, Pierre Bensusan, Paddy Reilly, and The Irish Tenors. It was also covered by Nathan Carter in his 2012 album The Live Show, and Carter sang a version of it live in Letterkenny with accompaniment from Coulter himself.