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The Parting Glass is an Irish or Scottish traditional song, often sung at the end of a gathering of friends. It was allegedly the most popular song sung in both Scotland and Ireland before Robert Burns wrote "Auld Lang Syne". The song was printed as a broadside (above) in the 1770s, and first appeared in book form in "Scots Songs" by Herd. An early version of the song is sometimes attributed to Sir Alex Boswell. The Irish version is usually considered more suitable for modern listeners. It is also the song that the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem would often sing to finish off their concerts. The song is doubtless older than its 1770 appearance in broadside, as it was recorded in the Skene Manuscript, a collection of Scottish airs written at various dates between 1615 and 1635. It was known at least as early as 1605, when a portion of the first stanza was written in a farewell letter, as a poem now known as "Armstrong's Goodnight", by one of the Border Reivers executed that year for the murder in 1600 of Sir John Carmichael, Warden of the Scottish West March.
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