Near 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 Sure the coaxing elf, I'd to shake myself To be sure I was standing there
As she onward sped, sure I shook my head And I gazed with a feeling quare And I says, says I, to a passer-by Who's the maid with the nut-brown hair He smiled at me and he says, says he, That's the gem of Ireland's crown, Miss 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 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
She'd a soft brown eye and a look so sly And a smile like a rose in June And you hung on each note from her lilly-white throat As she lilted an Irish tune At the pattern dance you were held in a trance As she kicked through a reel or a jig And when her eyes she'd roll, She would lick your soul A heart she would quickly steal
From Bantry Bay up to Derry Quay And from Galway to Dublin town No maid I've seen like the sweet 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 sweet Colleen That I met in the County Down