The Spalpeens

THE SPALPEENS

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The Stories Behind the Songs We Sing

The Star of the County Down

This song, sometimes referred to as “The Maid with the Nut Brown Hair,” has been recorded by the famed Irish tenor John McCormack, the Irish punk band The Pogues and the erstwhile rocker Van Morrison. By the way the word “boreen,” which has stumped listeners for ages is the Gaelic word for meadow, although some insist it really means small road or even a sunken lane. Whatever, the song has been sung as a ballad, a waltz, even a polka.

Traditional

Dm                                      F        C              Dm          C

         Near Banbridge town, in the county Down, One morning in Ju-ly,
Dm                                          F           C                     Dm

Down a boreen green came a sweet colleen And she smiled as she passed him by;
             F                                    C                                Dm                                C

Oh she looked so neat from her two white feet to the sheen of her nut brown hair.
               Dm                          F             C                  Dm                        C    Dm

Sure the coaxing elf, he’d to shake himself, to make sure he was stand-ing there.

-Chorus-

Dm F C

From Bantry Bay up to Derry Quay,

Dm C

from Galway to Dublin town,
Dm F C

No maid I've seen like the sweet coll-een,
Dm C Dm

hat I met in the coun-ty Down

As he onward sped he shook his head and he gazed with a feeling quare,
'And he said,' with a sigh to a passer-by, 'Who's the maid with the nut brown hair?'
Oh, he smiled at him, with a prideful grin: ‘That’s the gem of Ireland's crown;
She's young Rosie McCann, from the banks of the Bann, the Star of the County Down.'

She'd a soft brown eye and a look so sly, and a smile like the rose in June,
He hung on each note from her lily-white throat, As she lilted an Irish tune.
At the pattern dance he was held in trance as she tripped through a reel or jig,
When her eyes she'd roll, coaxed upon his soul, a spud from a hungry pig.

He’d traveled a bit, but never was hit, since his roving career began;
But fair and square he surrendered there to the charm of young Rosie McCann
With a heart to let and no tenant yet, did he meet within shawl or gown.
But in she went and he asked no rent from the star of the County Down.

At the crossroads fair he’ll be surely there all dressed in his Sunday clothes,
And he’ll try sheep's eyes and deluding lies on the heart of the nut-brown Rose.
No pipe he’ll smoke, no horse he’ll yoke though his plough with rust turns brown
Till a smiling bride by his own fireside sits the Star of the County Down

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