Near 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 sweet from her two white feet to the sheen of her nutbrown hair

Such a coaxing elf, I'd to shake myself, just to see I was really there

From Bantry Bay down 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.

As she onward sped I scratched me head and I looked with a feeling rare,

And I said, said I, to a passer-by, "Who's the maid with the nutbrown hair?"

He smiled at me, and he said said he, "That's the gem of Ireland's crown,

She's young Rosie McCann from the banks of the Bann, she's the Star of the County Down."

From Bantry Bay down 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.

At the harvest fair she'll be surely there and I'll dress in me Sunday clothes

And with me shoes shone bright and me hat cocked right for a smile from the nutbrown Rose.

No pipe I'll smoke, no horse I'll yoke though with rust my plow turns brown,

Till a smiling bride by my own fireside sits the Star of the County Down.

From Bantry Bay down 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.