The Parting Glass

 

Oh all the money that e’re I spent,
I spent it in good company.
And all the harm that e’re I’ve done,
Alas it was to none but me.
And all I’ve done for want of wit
To memory now I can’t recall.
So fill to me the parting glass,
Goodnight and joy be with you all.

If I had money enough to spend
And leisure time to sit awhile,
There is a fair maid in this town
Who surely has my heart beguiled.
Her rosy cheeks and ruby lips,
I own she has my heart enthralled.
So fill to me the parting glass,
Goodnight and joy be with you all.

Oh all the comrades that e’re I’ve had
They’re sorry for my going away.
And all the sweethearts that e’re I’ve had
They wish me one more day to stay.
But since it falls unto my lot,
That I should rise and you should not.
I’ll gently rise and softly call
Goodnight and joy be with you all.

---

I first learned this song as a small child, from a recording by the great Tommy Makem. Noirín Ní Riain tells me that it is one of the few songs collected in Limerick, and that it originally came from a man named John Carr in 1901.