Near to Banbridge Town, in the County Down
One morning last July,
From a boreen green came a sweet colleen,
And she smiled as she passed me by;
She looked so sweet from her two bare feet
To the sheen of her nut-brown hair,
Such a winsome elf, sure I shook myself
To see she was really there.
CHORUS:
From Bantry Bay up to Derry Quay,
And from Galway to Dublin town,
No maid I've seen like the brown colleen
that I met in the County Down.
As she onward sped, sure I shook my head
And I looked with a feeling rare,
And I said, says I, to a passer-by,
"
Who's the maid with the nut-brown hair?"
He smiled at me, and he says, says he.
"
She’s the gem of Ireland's crown,
Young Rosie McCann from the banks of the Bann,
She's the Star of the County Down."
CHORUS
At the harvest fair she'll be surely there
And I'll dress in my Sunday clothes
With my shoes shone bright, and my hat cocked right
With a smile for my nut-brown Rose.
No pipe I'll smoke, no horse I'll yoke
Though my plow with rust turns brown,
Till a smiling bride, by my own fireside
Sits the Star of the County Down.