Star of The County Down

Near to Banbridge Town,
in the County Down
one morning in July,
Down a boreen green came a sweet colleen,
And she smiled as she passed me by;
Oh, she looked so neat from her two white feet
to the sheen of her nut-brown hair,
Sure the coaxing elf, I'd to shake myself
to make sure I was standing there

As she onward sped I shook my head
and I gazed with a feeling quare,
And I said, says I, to a passer-by,
"Who's the maid with the nut-brown hair?"
Oh, he smiled at me,
and with pride says he,
"That's the gem of Ireland's crown,
She's young Rosie McCann from the banks of the Bann,
She's the Star of the County Down."

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.

At the harvest fair she'll be surely there
So I'll dress in my sunday clothes,
With my hat cocked right and my shoes shone bright
and all for my nut brown rose.
No pipe I'll smoke, no horse I'll yoke
Till my plough rust turns coloured brown.
Till a smiling bride, by my own fireside
Sits the star of the county down.

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.

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.