Near Banbridge Town in the county down one morning last July
Down a boarding green came a sweet colleen
and she smiled as she passed me by.
She looked so sweet in her two bare feet,
to the fringe of her nut-brown hair,
Young Rosee McCann from the banks of the Bann;
she's the star of the County down.
Refrain: From Bantry Bay up to Derry Quay, from Galway to Dublin town,
No maid I have seen like the fairy colleen that I met in the county down.
As she onward sped sure I scratched my head
and I looked with a feeling rare:
"Ay" says, says I to a passer-by,
"Who's the maid with the nut-brown hair?"
And he smiled at me and he says, says he: "that's the gem if an Irelands crown!"
It's Rosee McCann from the banks of the Bann - she's the star of the county down.
Refrain
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 upright for a smile from my nut-brown rose.
No pipe I'll smoke, no horse I'll yoke, till my plough was a rust-coloured brown,
'Till a smiling bride by my own fireside is the star of the county down.
Refrain (2x)
