The Star of the County Down - The Wolfe Tones

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

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