| Down a boarding green came a sweet colleen
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| And she smiled as she passed me by
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| She looked so sweet in her two bare feet
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| To the fringe of her nut-brown hair
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| Young Rosee McCann from the banks of the Bann;
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| She’s the star of the County down
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| Refrain: From Bantry Bay up to Derry Quay, from Galway to Dublin town
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| No maid I have seen like the fairy colleen that I met in the county down
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| As she onward sped sure I scratched my head
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| And I looked with a feeling rare:
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| «Ay» says, says I to a passer-by
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| «Who's the maid with the nut-brown hair?»
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| And he smiled at me and he says, says he: «that's the gem if an Irelands crown!»
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| It’s Rosee McCann from the banks of the Bann — she’s the star of the county down
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| At the harvest fair she’ll be surely there and I’ll dress in my Sunday clothes
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| With my shoes shone bright and my hat upright for a smile from my nut-brown rose
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| No pipe I’ll smoke, no horse I’ll yoke, till my plough was a rust-coloured brown
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| 'Till a smiling bride by my own fireside is the star of the county down |