☘ THE RATTLIN' BOG ☘
FAN SHRINE

A woman in Sao Paulo shares how her Irish grandmother taught her The Rattlin' Bog in the 1970s.

BogLord packs for festival season while his cat claims the suitcase and stares toward the lane.

BogLord's guide to teaching The Rattlin' Bog to any group, from toddlers to grandparents.

Monthly trad session report from Cruise's pub in Ennis featuring three Rattlin' Bogs in one night.

The Rattlin' Bog Fan Shrine t-shirts and stickers are real and BogLord is wearing one right now.

The simplest Irish folk songs to play on guitar, all built on a handful of chords, perfect for a first session.

Notable Rattlin' Bog TikToks from June including a choir, a speed-run, and a wedding first dance.

Mick Hennessy shares his thoughts on festivals, toilets, and whether Electric Picnic is terrible.

Fan letters from Sydney, Berlin, Cork, and Boston show how far The Rattlin' Bog has travelled.

A practical guide to starting The Rattlin' Bog at a trad session, from timing to hand gestures.

BogLord is writing his Electric Picnic talk and panicking about PowerPoint and crowds.

Trad sessions are kicking off across Ireland this summer and everyone wants BogLord to start the Rattlin' Bog.

BogLord returns to the bog near Corofin and discovers something impossible.

Anniversary reflection on nearly 24 years of The Rattlin' Bog Fan Shrine.

The Trinity mathematical paper about The Rattlin' Bog has been published and is getting attention.

The honest answer to how many verses The Rattlin' Bog has, why versions differ, and the famously contested eleventh and twelfth verses.

Festival prep and reflections on the song's integration into Irish culture.

BogLord's cat leads him somewhere in the middle of the night.

The @bog_remembers account posts one final message and then deletes.

Mick Hennessy, old session musician from Cruise's Pub, wrote to BogLord.

Something strange about rattlinbog.fun's registration history.

BogLord has been invited to five festivals. He's doing a talk at Electric Picnic.

How sea shanties differ from pub and session songs, why the lines blur, and which 'shanties' were never really shanties at all.

Someone posted a recording of their grandmother singing verse twelve. It's haunting.

The song is now in school music curricula. Teachers are reaching out with lesson plans.

BogLord drove to the coordinates from the Trinity paper. Something felt wrong.

BogLord is actually making merch. Only took him 23 years to follow through.

Life after the media storm. Things are calming down but the song is still everywhere.

The end of March. The end of something. Or maybe the beginning.

A thank-you post to the community that made this all possible.

A vulnerable moment. Too much attention. Too much everything.

Dr. Hayes' paper is finished. And it contains something I don't understand.

The Rattlin' Bog phenomenon has gone worldwide. BBC. NPR. The Guardian.

BogLord appears on Ireland's biggest chat show. It was magical.

The mysterious account posts something that doesn't make sense.

Hungover, overwhelmed, and in total disbelief.

The day it all came together. The performance. The moment. The song.

People ask why I don't automate the replies. Because then it wouldn't be a conversation. It'd be a vending machine. No thanks.

The real reasons Irish folk songs invite a singalong, the modal melodies, the choruses, and the centuries of pub testing behind them.

Something strange happens in the living room. Probably nothing.

The mystery deepens. Eleven people from seven countries describing the same unknown verse.

St. Patrick's Day approaches and BogLord gets an invitation that changes everything.

BogLord chats about the early days, building the shrine, and coming back online.

A no-nonsense guide to St. Patrick's Day songs, the genuine traditional ones to sing and the plastic-paddy ones to leave alone.

A Trinity College mathematician emails about something strange in the song's structure.

The Rattlin' Bog goes global as March kicks off with coverage everywhere.

The original Rattlin' Bog Challenge video has hit one million views.

Cruise's is packed. The energy is electric. And Mick learned TikTok.

Multiple people are asking about a verse that doesn't officially exist.

The forum is getting activity for the first time since 2003. New users are signing up.

Some guestbook entries from the early 2000s reference events that haven't happened yet.

The Irish Times wrote about the TikTok trend. RTE mentioned it on the radio.

A reel-to-reel transferred to cassette of a Clare session in '74. The bog is on it. So are voices long gone. I listened twice through, slowly.

Why the Rattlin' Bog matters. What makes it endure.

The mysterious account posts again. This time it's a bog at night, and the song sounds wrong.

300 UCC students sang the Rattlin' Bog in the quad. BogLord was there. He cried.

Someone found a shellac record at a boot sale. The label says 1847. That's impossible.

How call-and-response Irish songs pull in people who don't know the words, with the best examples for a pub or a session.

University College Cork has made the Rattlin' Bog their official anthem. They want BogLord to come.

Someone made a TikTok about the fan site itself. 200k views and counting.

TikTok users are singing all verses in under 60 seconds. BogLord watches in awe.

Rattlin' the cat is being extra peculiar lately.

New musicians join the Cruise's session and discover the Bog.

Rattlin' the cat finds an old notebook with mysterious handwritten verse orders.

BogLord receives messages from around the world about the Rattlin' Bog.

BogLord gets a new bodhrán and remembers what it feels like to play music.

The qualities that separate a great session song from one that dies on its feet — range, chorus, length, and the all-important key.

BogLord's website hit counter has exploded and he has no idea why.

Twenty thousand emails since 2002. I went back and reread the very first one. Then I sat in the dark for a bit, happy.

BogLord discovers a mysterious TikTok account posting an unsettling version of the song.

BogLord falls down the TikTok rabbit hole and discovers the Rattlin' Bog is everywhere.

BogLord discovers TikTok and finds the Rattlin' Bog going viral.

BogLord's resolution for 2026: keep the site going. Something feels different this time.

The traditional songs sung at Irish funerals and wakes, from The Parting Glass to Danny Boy, and how to get through them.

BogLord2002 receives emails from new visitors to the shrine.

A Christmas morning with family and tradition.

BogLord2002 returns to Cruise's pub in Ennis for a session.

BogLord2002 revisits entries in the Rattlin' Bog guestbook and gets emotional.

Why The Twelve Days of Christmas works exactly like The Rattlin' Bog, the memory-game structure, and the disputed meaning of the gifts.

BogLord2002 discovers a mysterious draft post in the admin panel.

BogLord2002 grapples with the modern internet after 22 years away.

After three years of me nagging, Mick made a forum account. His first post was four words long and absolutely perfect.

The cheerful-sounding, surprisingly dark Dublin nursery song Weile Weile Waile, its old murder-ballad bones, and why kids love it.

Reflections on what happened to BogLord2002 since 2003.

BogLord2002 returns after 22 years to find the Rattlin' Bog Fan Shrine still standing.

I was knackered and almost stayed in. Then I went out. And it turned into one of the great nights. Funny how that works.

Practical memory tricks for cumulative songs like The Rattlin' Bog — the hand gestures, the chunking, the breath control, and the panic-recovery move when you blank.

Storm Ashley knocked the lights out at the height of a session. We sang the bog by candlelight and phone torches.

The childhood street-game roots of I'll Tell Me Ma, the Belfast City connection, and why it works for kids and pubs alike.

A clear reference for the verse order of The Rattlin' Bog, bog to tree to branch to flea, and where people commonly go wrong.

For two years she only sang the choruses, quiet as anything. Last week she started a verse herself. The room held its breath.

The sea-shanty origins of Drunken Sailor, how it became a pub and playground song, and the endless made-up verses.

A nurse wrote to tell me her residents — some with dementia — light up the moment the bog starts. The song reaches them.

There's always one. Says nothing all night, then sings one verse so true the whole room goes silent. I've finally met ours.

A guide to the regional variations of The Rattlin' Bog — the Scottish, American and other versions, and how the verses change as the song travels.

Eleven strangers, one pub in Westport, no plan. By the second hour we were a band. By the third we were friends.

How to actually get through The Rocky Road to Dublin, the slip-jig rhythm, the patter verses, and why most people just mumble it.

The official sessions ended but forty musicians kept going in a car park til 5am. Best music I heard all Fleadh.

A handwritten letter arrived, no name, no address, just one verse and the words 'you're keeping it alive.' I keep rereading it.

The outlaw at the heart of The Wild Colonial Boy, the Irish-Australian bushranger tradition, and the many names he goes by.

A woman from Boston heard us start the bog and burst into tears. Her grandfather used to sing it. We sat with her a while.

A teacher-tested list of Irish songs for the classroom, sorted by age group, with notes on lyrics you might want to skip.

A young lad at his first session welled up when the flea verse landed. People laughed. I didn't. I understood completely.

A practical guide for teachers and parents on teaching Irish songs to kids, why cumulative songs work best, and where to begin.

A fiddler told me the Shop Street buskers have an unspoken rule about who plays the bog and when. There's a whole etiquette.

The aching homesickness of Spancil Hill, the real fair near Ennis, and the emigrant who dreams himself home from California.

Eleven lads on a stag bus to Galway memorised the entire bog as a dare. The groom wept. The driver joined in. Chaos. Beauty.

A whole sixth class sang the bog as their leaving song. A teacher sent me the video. I've watched it eleven times.

The strange patchwork origins of Carrickfergus, its Irish-language ancestor, and why the lyrics feel like a half-remembered dream.

The comic disaster of Courtin' in the Kitchen, the servant girl, the lawsuit, and why it's a perfect lively session song.

A two-year-old in Donegal got the entire cumulative sequence right and the video has nine million views. NINE.

A young busker in Melbourne makes part of his living off the bog and tried to send me a cut. I told him to buy a round instead.

The true tangled origins of Danny Boy, the Londonderry Air, Frederic Weatherly's lyrics, and why some Irish people can't stand it.

The cat presented me with a live frog. From a bog song website owner's cat. I'm choosing to believe he gets the joke.

The witty back-and-forth of The Maid of the Sweet Brown Knowe, the girl who turns the suitor down flat, and where the 'knowe' is.

A young one at the till said 'are you BogLord?' and I nearly dropped my milk. The internet is a strange and lovely place.

Death metal. A jazz trio. A man on a theremin. The bog contains multitudes and I've gathered the strangest covers for you.

The rebel history behind The Wearing of the Green, the 1798 context, and how a song about a colour became a coded protest.

An Irish soldier posted in Lebanon emailed to say his unit sings the bog on the worst nights. I read it twice.

Untangling the several songs called The Foggy Dew, the Easter Rising ballad, the old love song, and why people mix them up.

For two years it was war. Now my cat naps three feet from the hens like a tiny furry diplomat. I'm baffled and proud.

Apparently the shrine is now also a cat website. You send me your cats. I love it. Here's a roundup of the best.

What happens in The Black Velvet Band, the woman who frames the narrator, and the transportation-to-Australia ballad tradition behind it.

A quiz in Cork asked how many verses the bog has. The answer they accepted was WRONG. I have feelings about this.

The emigration and farewell at the heart of The Leaving of Liverpool, the real ship named in it, and its Atlantic crossings.

He proposed during the egg verse. She said yes during the nest verse. The whole pub finished the song in tears.

An old woman on the bus to Galway started humming the bog. She knew a verse I'd never heard. Then her stop came.

The story of Star of the County Down, the girl from Banbridge, and the old air it shares with songs across Britain and Ireland.

How There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly hooks kids with its build-up structure, and what it shares with the Rattlin' Bog.

I was refreshing the visitor counter forty times a day. It was making me miserable. So I quit. Here's what happened.

The tall-tale ship of The Irish Rover, its cargo of impossible numbers, and why the song is half cumulative cousin to the Rattlin' Bog.

A pub barred the bog for being 'too long.' Their takings dropped. They reinstated it within a month. We are gracious in victory.

The tree is down. The angel is missing. Rattlin' is asleep in the wreckage looking deeply satisfied with herself.

They're built the same way — cumulative, daft, addictive. I went down a rabbit hole on cumulative songs and never came back.

My brother emigrated to Perth. So I teach his daughter the verses on a Sunday video call. Twelve thousand miles, one song.

The most beginner-friendly Irish songs to learn, chosen for short choruses and forgiving melodies, with the Rattlin' Bog as a starting point.

What The Galway Races captures about the great race meeting, the breathless list of characters, and why it's secretly a list song like our own bog.

Old Paddy asked for the bog at his funeral instead of a hymn. We gave it to him, all twelve verses, every one of us cracking.

The unspoken rules of singing at an Irish session — when to start a song, when to shut up, and how not to be the person nobody wants beside them.

My cat has begun a one-sided war with the postman. The glove is gone. The postman has theories. So do I.

What to do when the session falls quiet and everyone looks at you, including which song to open with and how to read the room.

Our man in Brazil learned the bog from his Irish granny. Her version drifted over the decades into something beautiful and odd.

A choir in Hamburg learned all twelve verses without knowing what most of the words meant. The recording is unreal.

The legendary potency of the cider in Johnny Jump Up, the Cork origins, and the comic catalogue of disasters it causes.

Erik came over from Norway and walked the boglands for a week, singing the verses to himself. He sent me the photos.

The contented little drinking song The Jug of Punch, what punch actually was, and why it's the cosiest song in the session.

A man in Japan got the flea verse tattooed on his forearm and sent me a photo. I cried at my desk. Genuinely.

The comic story inside Finnegan's Wake, the whiskey that wakes the corpse, and how Joyce borrowed the title for his book.

At a festival the longest queue in Ireland spontaneously started the bog to pass the time. Strangers harmonising over portaloos.

The strange tonal turn in The Banks of the Roses, from courtship to threat, and how sessions usually sing only the gentle half.

Mick swears there's an eleventh verse his grandmother sang. Nobody else has heard it. The argument is now a tradition itself.

Why The Parting Glass closes so many nights, its Scottish-Irish roots, and how to sing it so the room actually goes quiet.

My cousin got married in Lisdoonvarna and by midnight forty people were doing the bog around the dancefloor.

A practical guide to singing Whiskey in the Jar in a session, the key to use, where the claps go, and how to handle the whack fol the daddy-o.

A London-Irish club celebrating fifty years asked me to record a wee message and the bog for their do. I obliged, nervously.

The doomed-ship comedy of The Mermaid, its old Child-ballad pedigree, and the round-and-round chorus that makes it a session favourite.

Everyone fears the flea verse. They're wrong. The egg verse is where sessions quietly fall apart. Let me explain.

Which traditional Irish songs actually land at a wedding, from the tear-jerkers to the floor-fillers, by someone who has sung at too many.

The cheerful emigration song Mursheen Durkin, the gold-rush dream, and the borrowed tune it shares with another well-known song.

I tried to record a clean verse for the site. The cat sat on the mic. Twice. You can hear him purring on take three.

Mick tunes his fiddle by ear, by feel, by spite. I bought him a clip-on tuner. He used it as a bookmark.

What The Holy Ground is really about, the Cobh waterfront it's named for, and the roaring 'fine girl you are' refrain.

Two old fellas in Ennis argued for an hour about whether Spancil Hill or the bog is the greater Clare song. I refereed.

The story behind Whiskey in the Jar, the highwayman, the betrayal, and why every band sings the chorus slightly differently.

The singalong songs that get a whole pub roaring even when half the room is mumbling the verses, with tips on which choruses carry the night.

Mick Hennessy fiddled so hard at a memorial session he actually bled on his strings and kept going. The man is not normal.

How Yeats reconstructed Down by the Salley Gardens from a few remembered lines, and what 'salley' actually means.

Everyone asks me what to sing after the bog. Here's my honest, opinionated list of the great Irish singalong songs.

The question everyone asks about Molly Malone, the cockles-and-mussels seller, the 'real Molly' statue, and what we can honestly prove.

A session in Doolin ran til dawn and somehow the whole pub ended up singing the bog backwards. I have not recovered.

A pub-tested list of the best Irish drinking songs for a session or a sing, with honest notes on which ones actually work after pint three.

A serious public-health question: how do you pace a pint so you survive the full cumulative song with dignity? My findings.

The mysterious symbolism of Green Grow the Rushes O, its counting structure, and why it's a close cousin of the Rattlin' Bog.

Clearing the attic I found Da's handwritten songbook from the sixties. The bog was on page four. I sat down on the floor and stayed there a while.

A guide to cumulative songs like The Rattlin' Bog, Green Grow the Rushes O and the Twelve Days, and why the build-up format is so addictive.

Back around 2010 I nearly shut the shrine for good. I'm glad I didn't. Here's the honest story of that low patch.

The contested origins of The Wild Rover, the famous four-clap chorus, and whether it was ever a temperance song.

Plans for the future of The Rattlin' Bog Fan Shrine — new content, a MIDI file, FAQ section, maybe a chat room. The bog abides, and so does this site.

The definitive ranking of every verse of The Rattlin' Bog, rated from least best to best. Spoiler: the flea gets 11 out of 10. No verse scores below 7.

A complete beginner's guide to singing The Rattlin' Bog. Learn the chorus, verse order, speed tips, and how to survive the flea verse. Start singing today!

Happy St Patrick's Day 2003! BogLord2002 reflects on The Rattlin' Bog as part of Irish identity, with plans for the big session at Cruise's pub in Ennis.

An explanation of YouTube for folk music fans — what it is, how it works, and why it could be revolutionary for preserving Irish traditional music forever.

The moment BogLord2002 discovered The Rattlin' Bog on YouTube for the first time. A full performance review of the video that changed everything.

The true story of starting The Rattlin' Bog on a Bus Eireann from Limerick and getting the whole bus singing by Kildare. One of the best days of my life.

A personal reflection on oral tradition, family memory, and learning The Rattlin' Bog from my grandmother. How Irish folk songs carry generations of love.

How The Rattlin' Bog became a staple of Irish school music classes — loved by teachers and students, feared by principals. A folk song in education.

A spirited defence of the flea verse as the greatest moment in The Rattlin' Bog — and possibly the peak of human musical achievement. Chaos meets joy.

A comprehensive survey of regional variations of The Rattlin' Bog across Ireland, England, and Scotland. Rare bog vs rattlin' bog and different verse orders.

A recap of the legendary Christmas 2002 trad session at Cruise's pub in Ennis, featuring four rounds of The Rattlin' Bog and an attempted 11th verse.

Essential trad session etiquette for starting The Rattlin' Bog. When it's right, when it's wrong, and why timing matters at an Irish folk music session.

The story of teaching my nephew Cian The Rattlin' Bog at Sunday dinner — and the beautiful chaos that followed. An Irish folk song spreads to a new generation.

Explore the history of cumulative songs in folk music, from The Rattlin' Bog to The Twelve Days of Christmas. How chain songs preserve oral tradition.

The definitive correct verse order for The Rattlin' Bog Irish folk song: bog, tree, limb, branch, twig, nest, egg, bird, feather, flea. Don't argue.

A passionate defence of why The Rattlin' Bog is the greatest Irish folk song — and the greatest song — ever written. Cumulative joy at its finest.

Welcome to the internet's first and only fan shrine dedicated to The Rattlin' Bog, the greatest Irish folk song ever. Built with love by BogLord2002.