Traditional Irish folk song.
Found in The Big Book of Irish Songs (Hal Leonard).
This song is sometimes sung in waltz time.
Lyrics
- Near to Banbridge town in the County Down
On a morning in July
Down a boreen green came a sweet caileen
And she smiled as she passed me by
Oh, she looked so neat from her two white feet
To the sheen of her nut-brown hair
Such a coaxing elf, had to shake myself
To make sure I was really there
Chorus
Oh, from Bantry Bay up to Derry Quay
And from Galway to Dublin town
No maid I’ve seen like the brown caileen
That I met in the County Down
- As she onward sped, I scratched my head
And I gazed with a feeling quare
There I said, said I to a passerby
“Who’s the maid with the nut-brown hair?”
Oh, he smiled at me, and with pride says he
“That’s the gem of Ireland’s crown
Young Rosie McCann from the banks of Bann
She’s the star of the County Down” - At the harvest fair she’ll surely be there
So I’ll dress in my Sunday clothes
And I’ll try sheep’s eyes and deludth’rin lies
On the heart of the nut-brown Rose
No pipe I’ll smoke, no horse I’ll yoke
Though my plough with rust turn brown
Till a smiling bridge by my own fireside
Sits the star of the County Down
Sung here by Fred Feild: