Near Banbridge Town

Near Banbridge Town in the county Down

One morning last July

Down a boreen green came a sweet coleen

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

Such a coaxing elf, sure I shook myself

For to see I was really there

From Bantry Bay up to Derry Quay,

And from Galway to Dublin town

No maid I've seen like the brown coleen

That I met in the county Down

As she onward sped, sure I scratched my head

And I looked with a feeling rare

And I says, says I, to a passer-by

Who's the maid with the nut-brown hair?

He smiled at me and then says he

That's the gem of the Irelands crown.

Young Rosie McCann from the Banks of the Bann

She's the sta rof the county Down

At the harvest fair she'll be surely there,

So I dress in my Sunday clothes

With my shoes shone bright and my hat cocked right

For a smile from my nut-brown Rose

No pipe I'll smoke, no horse I'll yoke,

Till my plough is a rust-coloured brown

Till a smiling bride by my own fireside,

Sits the star of the county Down