Near Banbridge town, in the County Down
One evening last July
Down a boreen green came a sweet colleen
And she smiled as she passed me by.
She looked so neat in her two bare feet
To the sheen of her nut-brown hair
Such a coaxing elf, I'd to shake myself
To make sure I was standing there.
Chorus
From Bantry Bay up to Derry Quay
And from Galway to Dublin town
No maid I've seen like the fair colleen
That I met in the County Down.

As she onward sped I shook my head
And I gazed with a feeling rare
And I said, says I, to a passerby
"Who's the one with the nut-brown hair?"
He smiled at me, and with pride says he,
"That's the gem of Ireland's crown.
Young Rosie McCann from the banks of the Bann
And the star of the County Down."
Chorus

She'd a soft brown eye and
a look so sly and a smile like the rose in June
And you held each note from her auburn throat,
as she lilted an Irish tune
At the pattern dance you were in trance
as she skipped through a jig or reel
When her eyes she'd roll, as she lift soul
And your heart she would likely steal
Chorus

At the harvest fair she'll be surely there
and I'll dress my Sunday clothes
With my hat cocked right and my shoes shon bright
for a smile from the nut-brown Rose
No horse I'll yoke, or pipe I smoke,
let the rust in my plough turn brown
And a smiling bride by my own fireside
sits the star of the County Down
Chorus

She'd a soft brown eye and
a look so sly and a smile like the rose in June
And you held each note from her auburn throat,
as she lilted an Irish tune
At the pattern dance you were in trance
as she skipped through a jig or reel
When her eyes she'd roll, as she lift soul
And your heart she would likely steal
Chorus

Near Banbridge town, in the County Down
One evening last July
Down a boreen green came a sweet colleen
And she smiled as she passed me by.
She looked so neat in her two bare feet
To the sheen of her nut-brown hair
Such a coaxing elf, I'd to shake myself
To make sure I was standing there.
Chorus (x3)