The Christmas Session 2002: A Night to Remember

Lads. LADS.

I am writing this on the 27th of December, two days after the greatest Christmas session in the history of Cruise's pub, possibly in the history of Ennis, possibly in the history of music. My voice is still gone. My hands are still sore from the bodhrán. Rattlin' the cat is looking at me with what I can only describe as concern. But I need to get this down before the details fade.

The Setup

Christmas night session at Cruise's. This is always a big one. People are home from Dublin, from London, from wherever life has taken them. The pub was PACKED. Standing room only by half nine. Three fiddles, two flutes, a box player, my tin whistle and bodhrán, a banjo (we tolerate him), and about forty people crammed in around us.

The music was mighty from the start. Sets of reels that would take the roof off. A gorgeous slow air from Maeve on the fiddle that nearly had me in tears. Someone's uncle did "The Parting Glass" and everyone went quiet, the way you do.

Round One: Half Ten

The first Rattlin' Bog came at about half ten. Paddy started it — Paddy always starts it, it's practically his legal right at this point. Beautiful rendition. Good pace, not too fast, everyone got through all the verses clean. The barman, Donal, was tapping along behind the bar. Lovely.

Round Two: Quarter Past Eleven

I don't know who started the second round. Might have been me. Might have been the Guinness. Either way, round two was FASTER. The room was warmer, the voices were louder, and by the time we hit the flea verse, people were practically shouting. A woman I'd never seen before was standing on a chair singing every word. Magnificent.

Round Three: Midnight

Happy Christmas, here's another bog. This one was chaotic. Somebody — I think it was young Cillian who's back from college in Galway — tried to change the verse order. Put the branch before the limb. There were OBJECTIONS. We had to restart. Started again, got through it properly. The round of applause at the end could have been heard in Kilrush.

Round Four: The Legendary One

It was about half twelve. The session was winding down. Most of the casual crowd had gone home. The serious musicians were still there, plus about fifteen hardy souls who weren't ready for the night to end.

Paddy started it one last time. And this time — THIS TIME — something happened that I've never seen before.

After the flea verse, after the full recap, after we'd done the whole chain from flea back down to bog... Mick Hennessy stood up and attempted an eleventh verse.

"And on that flea there was a hair, a rare hair, a RATTLIN' hair..."

The room went silent for about half a second. Then someone shouted "A SPECK! A SPECK ON THE HAIR!" And Mick, God bless him, went for it.

"And on that hair there was a speck, a rare speck, a rattlin' speck, and the speck on the hair and the hair on the flea and the flea on the feather—"

He got lost. Of course he got lost. You can't add a verse to the bog on the fly at half twelve on Christmas night after that many pints. The whole thing collapsed into laughter. Mick was laughing so hard he had to sit down. The woman on the chair was crying. Donal the barman — DONAL THE BARMAN — started singing the chorus from behind the bar, and somehow, through the chaos, we all found the chorus together and finished it off.

"HO RO THE RATTLIN' BOG, THE BOG DOWN IN THE VALLEY-O!"

The cheer that went up. I'm getting emotional just typing this.

The Aftermath

We stayed till nearly two. Donal locked the doors and let us keep going. Quieter stuff after that — "Raglan Road," "The Fields of Athenry," someone did a beautiful "She Moved Through the Fair." But the four rounds of the bog were the spine of the night.

I walked home through Ennis at half two on a cold, clear Christmas night, and I was still humming the chorus. The streets were empty. The stars were out. And I thought: this is why the song matters. This is why I built the website. These are the nights you remember.

Thank You

To everyone at Cruise's on Christmas night: thank you. To Paddy for starting it. To Mick for the attempted eleventh verse. To Donal for the lock-in. To the woman on the chair, whoever you were.

Best Christmas session ever. Until next year.

BogLord2002

P.S. — Mick says he's going to practice the "speck" verse and come back with it next year. I believe him. God help us all.