“The Parting Glass” (Roud 3004) is a Scottish traditional song, often sung at the end of a gathering of friends. It has also long been sung in Ireland, where it remains popular; this has strongly influenced how it is often sung today. It was purportedly the most popular parting song sung in Scotland before Robert Burns wrote “Auld Lang Syne”. The “parting glass”, or “stirrup cup”, was the final hospitality offered to a departing guest. Once they had mounted, they were presented one final drink to fortify them for their travels. The custom was practised in several continental countries.
The earliest tentative evidence for the existence of the text is from the Skene Manuscript a collection of Scottish airs written in tablature for the lute and mandora at various dates between 1615 and 1635, as a different tune bearing the name Good Night, and God Be With Yow. The tune appeared to have been popular and variants of it appear in many collections, often with similar names, including in Henry Playford’s 1700 A collection of original Scotch-tunes, Neil Gow’s The complete repository of original Scots slow strathspeys and dances. The first complete text that bears resemblance to the Parting Glass first appears on a broadside published in 1654 (or circa 1670 according to another dating) called Neighbours farewell to his friends.
The earliest known appearance of the tune today associated with this text is as a fiddle tune called “The Peacock”, included in James Aird’s A Selection of Scots, English, Irish and Foreign Airs in 1782. Robert Burns referred to the air in 1786 as “Good night, and joy be wi’ ye a’.” when using it to accompany his Masonic lyric “The Farewell. To the brethren of St. James’s Lodge, Tarbolton”. In 1800–1802, the song was incorrectly attributed to Joseph Haydn by Sigismund von Neukomm (1778-1858), who entered it in the Hoboken catalogue as “Good night and joy be wi’ ye. Hob XXXIa 254. Mi mineur”, which text has been wrongly attributed to Sir Alexander Boswell (1775-1822).
Patrick Weston Joyce in his Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909), gives the tune with a different text under the name “Sweet Cootehill Town,” noting, “The air seems to have been used indeed as a general farewell tune, so that—from the words of another song of the same class—it is often called ‘Good night and joy be with you all.'” The celebrated Irish folk song collector Colm O Lochlainn has taken note of this identity of melodies between “The Parting Glass” and “Sweet Cootehill Town”. “Sweet Cootehill Town” is another traditional farewell song, this time involving a man leaving Ireland to go to America.
“The Parting Glass” was re-introduced to mid-20th century audiences by the recordings and performances of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. At the request of Margaret Atwood, to end her guest-edited edition of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme with the song, a version by singer Karine Polwart and pianist Dave Milligan was commissioned. The song was featured in the conclusion of the 2013 video game Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, where pirate Anne Bonney sings the song to protagonist Edward Kenway after the two say their farewells and Edward prepares to meet his daughter and return with her to England. In 2023, boygenius collaborated with Ye Vagabonds to release a cover of “The Parting Glass”, paying tribute to the late Sinead O’Connor, an Irish singer and activist who had also recorded the song and who had died earlier that year. All proceeds were donated to the Aisling Project, Sinéad O’Connor Estate’s charity of choice.
