Who was Pearly Spencer?

David McWilliams (1945-2002), the Belfast born but Ballymena raised singer-songwriter wrote his classic hit, The Days of Pearly Spencer in 1967. 

The lyrics of the song are poetic and majestic. David was clearly a man of social conscience, as the song was reputedly written about a homeless man he had befriended in Ballymena. 

Does anyone know who Pearly Spencer was? Fictional or a real person, please comment below if you have additional information. 

THE DAYS OF PEARLY SPENCER

A tenement, a dirty streetWalked and worn by shoe less feetInside it's long and so completeWatched by shivering sunOld eyes in a small child's faceWatching as the shadows raceTrough walls and cracks and leave no traceAnd daylight's brightness shuns
The days of Pearly SpencerThe race is almost run
Nose pressed hard on frosted glassGazing as the swollen massOn concrete fields where grows no grassStumbles blindly onIron trees smother the airBut withering they stand and stareTrough eyes that neither know nor careWhere the grass is gone
The days of Pearly SpencerThe race is almost run
Pearly where's your milk white skin?What that stubble on your chin?Buried in the rot gut ginYou played and lost not wonYou played a house that can't be beatNow look your head's bowed in defeatYou walked too far along the streetWhere only rats can run
The days of Pearly SpencerThe race is almost runThe days of Pearly SpencerThe race is almost run


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