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.
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 be sure I was standing there.

From Bantry Bay – to Derry Quay,
And from Galway to Dublin town,
There’s no maid I’ve seen like the sweet colleen
That I met in the County Down.

As she onward sped, sure 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?”
He smiled at me, and with pride says he,
“That’s the gem of old Ireland’s crown,
That’s Miss Rosie McGann from the banks of the Bann,
She’s the Star of the County Down.”…………………..chorus

She’d a soft brown eye, and a look so sly
and a smile like a rose in June
And you held each note from her lily white throat
as she lilted an Irish tune
At the pattern dance you were in a trance
as she tripped through a jig or reel
Then her eyes she’d roll she could lift your soul
and your heart she would likely steal………………..chorus

At the harvest fair, she will surely be there,
And I’ll dress in my Sunday clothes,
With my hat cocked right and my shoes shone bright
For a smile from the nut-brown rose.
No pipe I’ll smoke, no horse I’ll yoke,
Let the plough with the rust turn brown,
‘Til that smiling bride by my own fireside
Sits the Star of the County Down…………………….chorus