The Star of the County Down
Irish traditional
In Banbridge town in the County Down
one morning last July,
down 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 coaxsome elf, had to shake myself
to be sure I was really there.
From Bantree bay up to Derry quay,
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 scratched my head,
and I looked with a feeling quare,
and I said, says I, to a passer by,
"Who's the maid with the nut-brown hair?"
He looked at me; with a grin, said 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."
At the harvest fair she'll be surely there,
so I'll put on my Sunday clothes,
with my shoes shone bright and my hat cocked right
for a smile from my nut-brown rose.
No pipe I'll smoke, no horse I'll yoke
`til my plow with rust turns brown,
`til a smiling bride by my own fireside
sits the star of the County Down.