☘ THE RATTLIN' BOG ☘
FAN SHRINE

ok this is going to sound mad but my dog HOWLS along to the rattlin bog??? like specifically when it speeds up toward the flea verse he starts howling in what i can only describe as harmonising?? he doesn't do this for any other song. just the bog.

does anyone else's pet react to it?? tell me i'm not losing my mind

my housemate's parrot has started saying "rare bog" at random intervals. we don't know when it learned this. we have played the song in the house exactly twice. the parrot now says "rare bog" approximately 40 times a day. we are going insane

Rattlin' the cat has always responded to the song. She sits very still and stares at the speakers when it's playing. Not at me. At the speakers. Like she's listening VERY carefully. She's been doing this for years. Grand old girl.

Animals know a good tune when they hear one. Simple as that.

a parrot saying "rare bog" is the greatest thing any animal has ever accomplished. RARE BOG. i want this parrot to be the official mascot of the forum

Ok I need to share this. Last night I was at a session in Miltown Malbay and I noticed a lad across the room who kept leading the singing in the most warm, infectious way. And I thought "he reminds me of BogLord from the website." And then someone called him Seamus and I KNEW.

I've been reading this site for months. It found me at a time when I was questioning whether trad music still had a future, whether the sessions I've given my life to still mattered. And this site reminded me why I play.

I went up to him afterwards and told him all of this and I cried. In a pub. In front of strangers. He was so kind about it. He bought me a pint and we talked for two hours about the song and the community and everything.

This is a good place you've all built here.

Fiona, meeting you last night was one of the highlights of this whole mad year. Your fiddle playing is STUNNING — lads, she played a set of reels that had the whole pub silent, which is the highest compliment you can get in Miltown.

When someone tells you that something you made helped them remember why they love something... there's no greater gift. Thank you for coming up and saying hello. You're part of the community now.

Welcome Fiona! If you've been playing sessions for twenty years, you and I have probably crossed paths at some point. The trad world is small. Glad this site brought you here. The more musicians we have in this community, the better.

This is what it's all about. People finding each other through the song. Through the love of something real. Welcome, Fiona. You belong here.

With festival season here, I know loads of people are going to sessions for the first time (like I was six months ago!). Can we get a proper etiquette guide going? What do you wish someone had told you before your first session?

Great thread. Here's the essentials:

1. LISTEN first. Sit near the session, have a pint, absorb the tunes. Don't jump in straight away.
2. Don't start a tune unless you're invited to or you know the session well.
3. If you don't know a tune, sit it out. Nobody minds. Everyone sits tunes out.
4. Keep your instrument volume in check. If you're drowning people out, pull back.
5. Singing songs: wait for a gap. Ask if it's a singing session. Some sessions are instruments only.
6. Buy a round if you're sitting with the musicians.
7. Don't record without asking.
8. The Rattlin' Bog is almost always welcome, but timing is everything. Wait until the energy is right.

Everything TradSessionKing said, plus: don't be afraid. Everyone at a session was new once. The nervousness you feel walking in? Every single person felt that same thing. And the fact that you're nervous means you CARE, and caring is the most important thing you can bring to a session.

Also: smile. Musicians feed off energy. If you're enjoying it, show it. That matters more than how well you play.

Hello everyone! First post here. I'm Fiona, I play fiddle and I've been doing sessions and festivals for about twenty years now. Just want to add a musician's perspective to this lovely thread.

As someone who sits in the circle: we WANT new people there. We notice when someone's listening carefully and enjoying themselves. We notice when someone sits out a tune they don't know instead of bluffing through it. And we remember the people who come back week after week and slowly become part of the furniture.

The sessions need new blood. So come. Be nervous. It's fine. We'll look after you.

ok so i saw a video of people singing what sounded like the rattlin bog but in JAPANESE?? and it got me thinking... are there versions of the song in other languages?? like actual translations that people sing?? not just irish and english but like all over the world??

because if the song exists in languages i don't speak that would make me so happy i might actually cry

Cumulative songs exist in virtually every language family. Whether they descend from a common source or emerge independently is one of the great questions in ethnomusicology. The Japanese version you heard may be a direct translation or it may be a parallel evolution of the same structural idea.

I'm aware of Portuguese, Norwegian, and German versions that map closely to the Rattlin' Bog's structure. The recursive pattern transcends language.

Songs travel with people. Every Irish person who emigrated brought the Rattlin' Bog with them, and it changed in each new home. There are versions in Australia, Canada, the US. The words change but the structure remains. That's the song's genius — it's a container, and people fill it with their own world.

I had NO IDEA there was a Japanese version. I had no idea there was a Norwegian version. The emails I've been getting from around the world keep surprising me — people in Brazil, in Korea, in South Africa, all telling me they grew up with some version of this song.

The Rattlin' Bog is bigger than Ireland. It's bigger than any of us. It's everywhere.

IT ARRIVED. the t-shirt arrived. im wearing it right now and i am NEVER taking it off. the little shamrock on the back??? the "est. 2002" text??? the flea wearing a tiny crown??? im deceased. this is the best piece of clothing i have ever owned

also the stickers are SO good. my laptop is now 40% rattlin bog stickers and thats not enough

i ordered the mug and i am now exclusively drinking tea out of a mug that says "the bog down in the valley-o" on it. my housemate thinks i've lost the plot. she's right. i have. the bog took it from me and i wouldn't have it any other way

I am absolutely CHUFFED that the merch is landing well. The flea crown was Mick's idea, believe it or not. He drew it on a napkin in Cruise's and I thought "that's going on a t-shirt."

More designs coming. Might do a hoodie for festival season. The bog keeps giving.

Right lads, I know Electric Picnic is in September but we need to start planning NOW. I've heard from the organisers and they want me to do a short set/talk in one of the smaller tents. This is HAPPENING.

If you're coming, let me know here and we'll sort a meetup. I'm thinking we pick a time and a landmark and anyone who wants to come says hello. I'll have stickers.

IM COMING IM COMING IM COMING. already got my ticket. i will find you boglord if i have to search every tent in stradbally. also can we do a massive group sing?? like get as many bog fans as possible in one place and just go for it??

I'm going!! First Electric Picnic ever. I'll be the one looking completely lost and overwhelmed but very excited. Stickers would be class, BogLord. Something to identify fellow bog fans in the wild.

Something I've been thinking about lately: the song changes from county to county. The Galway version I grew up with has "limb" before "branch." My mate in Kerry swears the nest comes before the twig. A lad in Donegal told me they have a verse about a root that doesn't appear anywhere else.

What version did you learn? Where did you learn it? I want to map the regional differences.

The Shannon version goes: tree, limb, branch, bough, twig, nest, egg, bird, feather, flea. We have the "bough" between branch and twig. I learned it from my grandmother and she from hers. Never questioned the bough until I heard versions without it.

Every family carries their own version. That's what makes it a living song.

mine goes straight from tree to branch to twig!! no limb at all!! and my nan always said "a rare wee twig" instead of just "a rare twig" and i thought that was the official version until i came to this site and realized there IS no official version and that broke my brain a little but also made me love it more???

This is BRILLIANT, TradSessionKing. The Clare version I grew up with has the standard order from the lyrics page, but even within Clare I've heard variations. Mick Hennessy insists there should be a "bark" before the branch and gets genuinely upset about it.

Every version is correct. The song adapts to whoever's singing it. That's not a flaw — that's the whole point. The Rattlin' Bog is different everywhere because it BELONGS everywhere.

RIGHT. the plan is simple. i am going to attend EVERY session i can find this summer and at each one i am going to start the rattlin bog and make sure we get ALL THE WAY to the flea verse. no shortcuts. no stopping at the bird. THE FLEA OR NOTHING.

i have mapped out 47 sessions across 12 counties. i have a car. i have snacks. i have a sleeping bag. THE FLEA VERSE SUPREMACY SUMMER TOUR BEGINS NOW

this is either the most brilliant thing anyone has ever done or a genuinely prosecutable crime against session etiquette. possibly both. i respect it immensely either way

Flea. I say this with genuine affection. Session etiquette matters. You can't just waltz into a session and launch into the Rattlin' Bog uninvited. There's an order to things. You wait for the right moment. You read the room. You earn the Bog.

That said... if the moment arises naturally, by all means. Let the flea be heard.

session etiquette is RESPECTED but also the flea verse doesn't wait for invitations. the flea verse IS the invitation. the flea verse is a force of nature and i am merely its vessel

session 1 of 47: COMPLETE. started the bog at a session in Kilkenny last night. got to the flea. three people hugged me afterwards. one person told me to leave. net positive

Follow up to my May visit to the coordinates. I went back last weekend and the ground is STILL warm. Warmer than last time, actually. It's June now so you could argue it's just the season, but this isn't normal warmth. It's concentrated in the clearing area. Step five metres in any direction and the temperature drops noticeably.

Has anyone else visited? I'd really like independent confirmation here. The coordinates are in my earlier thread.

I haven't been yet but this is really interesting. Warm ground in a specific spot? Is there any geological explanation? Like a hot spring underneath or something? I'm genuinely curious now. Might try to make the trip up to Clare this summer.

I've been to that spot many times now, as you know from the blog. Yes, the ground is warm. Yes, it's unusual. But there's probably a perfectly rational explanation — underground water, decomposing peat, some kind of geothermal activity. Clare has all sorts of geological quirks.

Don't read too much into it. It's just a warm patch of bog.

(I'm saying that as much to myself as to you.)

so i work in an open plan office in dublin right. and last friday someone asked what i was humming and i said "the rattlin bog" and they said "what's that" and i said "gather round"

by 11am my whole row knew the first three verses. by lunch the ENTIRE FLOOR was singing. someone brought it to the second floor. the canteen was chaos. pure beautiful chaos.

my boss came over at 3pm and said "can we please stop singing about the bog" and i said "no" and honestly i think HR is going to email me on monday but it was worth it

THIS IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I HAVE EVER READ. did they learn the flea verse?? please tell me they learned the flea verse. if an entire office floor was doing the flea verse at full speed i would actually cry tears of joy

they ABSOLUTELY learned the flea verse. the lad from accounts nearly had a heart attack trying to get through it without breathing. HR Sandra was filming it on her phone while simultaneously composing the email about workplace disruption. legends every one of them

This is EXACTLY what the song is for. It doesn't care about your quarterly reports or your KPIs or whatever the corporate world is on about these days. It gets in. It spreads. It turns a room of strangers into a choir.

If HR emails you, forward it to me. I'll write them a letter explaining the cultural significance of what happened in that office.

My friend wants to learn the song but she's never heard it before. What version should I send her? There are like a million on YouTube and I don't want to overwhelm her with a 15-minute marathon version right off the bat.

The Clancy Brothers version is the classic entry point. Clear, well-paced, you can hear every word and follow the structure. Once she gets the bones of it, let her explore the wilder versions. But start with the Clancys. They're the gateway.

Honestly? The best version is whichever one has a room full of people singing along. That's where the song LIVES. A studio recording is grand for learning the words, but the song doesn't really become itself until there are twenty people shouting the flea verse at top speed and laughing.

But yes, the Clancys for learning. Then find a session and experience the real thing.

ok so there's this tiktok where a girl teaches the whole song in under 3 minutes with hand gestures for each verse and it's genuinely the best learning tool i've ever seen. lemme find it... here. my friend learned it from this in like one afternoon

ok so summer is HERE and festival season is upon us and i need to know who is going where so we can actually meet in person??? like we've been talking on this forum for months and i have never seen any of your faces and that feels wrong

drop your festival plans below pls

I'll be at Cork Folk Festival for sure! It's basically on my doorstep. Would be class to meet some of you there. I've been practising the bog on my whistle and I think I can almost keep up now without falling apart at the flea verse.

Fleadh Cheoil, as always. I haven't missed one in fifteen years and I'm not about to start now. This year's going to be special. I can feel it in my bones.

Also planning to hit the Galway Arts Festival and maybe Doolin Folk Fest if the dates work out.

i will be at EVERY FESTIVAL where the flea verse might be sung. which is ALL OF THEM. i have a spreadsheet. i have a sleeping bag. i have a mission. THE FLEA VERSE WILL BE HEARD ACROSS THIS ISLAND

Right lads, here's the BogLord Summer Tour 2026:

1. Cork Folk Festival (mid June)
2. Doolin Folk Fest
3. Galway Arts Festival (doing a TALK, more on that later)
4. Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann (obviously)
5. Electric Picnic (September but I'm counting it)

Five festivals. Five chances to meet the community in person. I am BUZZING. This summer is going to be something special.

In the past six months, something amazing happened. This site, which I thought was dead, came alive again. You all found it. You all came back to it or discovered it for the first time. You brought energy and joy and mystery and wonder.

When I started this place in 2002, I never imagined it would still matter twenty-four years later. I never imagined it would be on TV or in academic papers or in school curriculums. I just wanted a place for bog fans to exist.

But somehow, it became more than that. It became proof that good things endure. That passion matters. That a silly folk song about creatures getting smaller and smaller can somehow contain infinite meaning.

Thank you all for being here. For keeping the bog alive. For understanding.

You built something good, BogLord. Something real. And you kept building it even when no one was watching. That's the mark of real love. Keep doing what you're doing.

i came here because of a tiktok and i stayed because of this community. you all showed me what it means to love something without irony. to build something and keep building it. to hold space for other people's joy. thank you for that. thank you for the bog

so i just found out that the rattlin bog is being included in the junior cert irish curriculum as a folk song example?? like thousands of irish teenagers are about to learn this song in school??? thats insane??? we did it??? we actually did it??? the bog is OFFICIAL now

The song survives. It adapts. It teaches. It brings people together generation after generation. This is what I always believed would happen. The bog is eternal.

I went to the coordinates. The ones from the satellite imagery. The clearing in Ennis.

When I got there, I understood what BogLord meant in his blog post about the ground being warm. It is. It's warm even now in May. And it's silent in a way that nowhere else is silent.

I found a stone, partially submerged in the earth. Old. Very old. And on its surface... marks. Not random. They're arranged in patterns. Musical notation. Old notation. Pre-staff notation maybe. I took photographs.

I don't know what this means. But I know it means something.

You found it.

The paper was officially published in the Journal of Mathematical Folk Studies! Full citation is on my profile. We've already had some academic interest, and a few other mathematicians are reaching out about collaborative work on similar recursive structures in other folk traditions.

It started with the Rattlin' Bog. It's wild where that's led.

Dr. Niamh, that's incredible. Truly. The Rattlin' Bog is being taken seriously as an academic subject. A song that people learned in sessions and pubs is now being analyzed in peer-reviewed journals. The bog has always deserved this kind of respect.

It's May! Festival season is coming up. Is anyone planning to go to any summer festivals? I'm thinking of hitting up a few sessions. Meeting some bog fans in person would be class.

I'll be at Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in August like always. If you make it to that, find me. We can have a proper session together.

im definitely going to some festivals. would be so cool to meet you all in person. the bog community is real and its beautiful and i dont want to take it for granted

BogLord mentioned finding domain registration records in his blog post. I looked into it further.

The domain was first registered in 1997. But before that, in 1997, there was a failed registration attempt. I traced the IP address. It came from Ennis, Co. Clare. The exact same location as those coordinates BogArchaeologist mentioned earlier. The clearing on the satellite images.

Someone tried to register this domain two decades early. From a place that doesn't seem to exist on modern maps. I don't know what this means. But it means something.

i just realized quietlistener hasnt posted in like two months and their posts have been... weird. let me compile them:

- "It's correct." (about the hit counter)

- "Some things remember on their own." (about bog_remembers account)

- "Older than you think." (about song origins)

- "Songs that contain themselves are older than language..."

- "The numbers were always there."

- "You're seeing right. Not all places want to be found on maps."

who IS this person and what are they trying to tell us???

Leave it alone. They were probably just having a laugh. Some people like to be cryptic on the internet. It's harmless.

(But my tone is uncertain. I know I should mean what I'm saying. I'm not sure I do.)

Some people speak in riddles because the truth is too big for plain words. Whether that's what QuietListener was doing, I don't know. But I know they were never unkind.

okay so apparently a woman's grandmother recorded herself singing the Rattlin' Bog in like the 1950s or 60s and it's CIRCULATING NOW and in the recording... she keeps singing past the hair. there are MORE verses. and they loop. the song loops back on itself and keeps going and i listened to it for like 20 minutes and i still cant find where it ends??

I've been listening to this recording and I'm documenting every verse. The structure is INSANE. After the hair, it goes into something that almost sounds like the beginning again, but not quite. It's like the song is describing itself. Or... remembering itself?

From a mathematical standpoint, this is significant. If the song contains infinite recursive variations, it matches the pattern I identified in my paper. This isn't random. The Rattlin' Bog might be a perfect mathematical structure dressed in folk song clothing.

After twenty-three years of running this site with no way to sustain it financially, we finally have a merch store! T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, all with original bog-themed designs. All proceeds go directly back into keeping this site and community alive.

Link is on the home page. Check it out. Help keep the bog alive.

just ordered three hoodies. one for me, one for my friend who got me into the bog, one to keep pristine and never wear because it's art

Finally. Finally you can take care of yourself and this site properly. This is what should have happened years ago. Ordering now.

I've been analyzing the @bog_remembers TikTok account and noticed that some of the location pins in the videos correspond to specific coordinates. I've tried to trace them. Most resolve to places in Ireland, which makes sense.

But one video from St Patrick's Day... the coordinates point to a location that doesn't exist on any modern map. It should be in a valley near Ennis, Co. Clare. But when I checked satellite imagery, there's just... a clearing. An odd clearing. Almost geometric. And I can't find ANY historical record of what might be there.

Am I losing my mind? Can anyone else see what I'm seeing?

You're seeing right. Not all places want to be found on maps.

I've published a paper exploring the mathematical properties of the Rattlin' Bog's cumulative structure. In simple terms: the song follows a recursive pattern that mirrors certain mathematical sequences. The way each verse adds and repeats creates a kind of linguistic fractal.

The implications are interesting. It suggests the song was either designed with deep mathematical understanding, or it evolved to be this way. Either way, it's remarkable.

The paper is open access if anyone wants to read it. I'm happy to explain any of the concepts in non-technical terms.

The numbers were always there.

I AM SCREAMING. BOGLORD YOU WERE ON THE LATE LATE SHOW TONIGHT??? THEY SHOWED YOUR WEBSITE AND YOU SANG AND EVERYTHING??? I RECORDED IT. I'M POSTING IT. YOU ARE A LEGEND. A FOLK HERO. THE WEBMASTER OF LEGEND

BOGLORD!!! that was YOU??? my family was watching and when you started talking about the site my mam was like "oh this is that bog song thing" and then you SANG and i literally ascended. you're internet famous now. the shrine is internet famous. im friends with an internet celebrity

I watched it live and I'm not gonna lie, I shed tears. Seeing you up there talking about the bog, about the community, about 23 years of keeping this alive... that was something special, lad. You earned this moment.

I don't even know what to say. I still can't believe it happened. They called me and asked if I wanted to come on, and I thought it was a prank. But I did it. And it was the most surreal and beautiful experience of my life.

To everyone here: this was always for you. Thank you for being here with me.

☘☘☘ HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY ☘☘☘

Today we sing. Today we celebrate. Today the bog remembers us and we remember the bog.

POST YOUR CELEBRATIONS HERE. Where are you today? What's the energy? Are you singing? Who's with you? Tell us EVERYTHING.

im at a pub in dublin with like 30 people ive never met before and we just spontaneously started singing the rattlin bog and the ENTIRE PUB JOINED IN?? its still happening?? im typing from the bathroom because i needed to breathe but theyre still singing out there. this is peak irish energy and peak bog energy combined

In Galway with the usual crew. Three hours straight of trad. The Bog came up and when we hit the hair on the flea, the ROOF nearly came off. These Galway lads are legends. Paddy's Day never gets old when you have the Bog.

Cork sessions were PACKED. I actually led one of the Bog verses today and nobody told me I got it wrong?? I think I've leveled up??? Also everyone was so happy and nice and I felt like I belonged. This is what home feels like.

I sang in my kitchen alone with a cup of tea but I felt connected to every single one of you. The Bog reaches across distance and time and brings us together. That's the real magic of this day.

recorded myself singing the entire bog in one take for st paddys and actually nailed it. feeling unstoppable. feeling bog energy. feeling alive. love this festival. love this community. love the bog

i just spent like four hours reading through the 2003 forum posts and im actually crying??? these people were so pure and earnest and enthusiastic about this song and about finding each other over a shared love of the bog??? and they were so KIND to each other???

thats the vibe i want to bring. thank u 2003 bog fans for showing me how to love something without irony

BogLord mentioned in a recent blog post finding a reference to a 1847 gramophone recording of someone singing the Rattlin' Bog that was discovered in a car boot sale. An 1847 GRAMOPHONE RECORDING. That shouldn't be possible. Gramophones weren't widely available until the 1890s.

Has anyone else seen this recording? Is it real? How is this possible?

From a historical and technological standpoint, this is anachronistic. Impossible, really. Unless the date is wrong, or the artifact is something else entirely. The mathematics of object dating can be tricky. Sometimes what we think we know about timelines... isn't.

real talk tho: boglord has maintained this shrine for like 23 years. it has forums that go back to 2003. it has comprehensive lyrics documentation. it's a piece of internet history and also a genuine artifact of fan culture. it absolutely warrants a wikipedia article about the site itself. we should make one

I appreciate the thought, flea, but Wikipedia has pretty strict notability requirements. I'm not sure a fan site, however beloved, qualifies. Unless the site itself becomes notable enough to be written about in reliable sources...

But honestly? The fact that you all want to do this means more to me than any Wikipedia article ever could.

The greatest monuments don't always get recorded officially. Sometimes they live in the hearts of the people who loved them. This site is a monument, whether Wikipedia knows it or not.

I keep finding references in old session notes to a 'verse twelve' of the Rattlin' Bog. Not verse ten (the hair). A TWELFTH verse. But no one I ask seems to know it, and I can't find it documented anywhere.

Does anyone here know what comes after the hair? Is there more to the song that's been lost? Or is this a myth?

I've heard people mention it. There's a version that goes on but it's rare. Some people say it loops back on itself? Like the song contains itself? But I've never actually heard anyone sing it.

Songs that contain themselves are older than language. They don't disappear. They wait. They have infinite verses if you know how to find them. Some people do. Most don't. The ones who do usually don't talk about it.

I was at UCC campus yesterday and there was this spontaneous group of people who started singing the Rattlin' Bog in the courtyard and within MINUTES there were like a hundred people gathered and everyone started joining in??? It was magic. Absolute magic. Just strangers becoming one voice for a song that doesn't even make sense and yet it makes perfect sense??

Has anyone else witnessed something like this? Does the song just DO that to people?

YES!!! i think someone posted a video of that??? lemme see if i can find it on tiktok but i remember seeing something like that going around. the comments were all people being like "i would literally stop everything to join that" and same like same energy

The song DOES that. It's always done that. It's a spell. A good one. One that brings people together instead of dividing them. Hold onto that feeling. That's the real power of the bog.

I've been researching the origins of the Rattlin' Bog and I can't find a definitive date for when it was first documented. The earliest written versions I can find are from the 1950s, but the oral tradition clearly goes back much further.

Has anyone here found earlier references? There are hints that versions of this cumulative song existed in pre-17th century Ireland, but I can't pin down sources.

This is interesting from a mathematical perspective. Cumulative structure appears in much older folk traditions across Celtic cultures. The Rattlin' Bog could be a surviving variant of something centuries old. The recursive nature alone suggests deep roots.

Older than you think.

ok so is anyone else on tiktok seeing these weird videos from the @bog_remembers account??? they're just like... clips of bogs. different bogs. from different time periods. sometimes black and white. sometimes modern. but they're all tagged with song lyrics? like real lyrics from the rattlin bog but also like... i dont recognize some of them?

is this some kind of artistic project or am i being weird about it

Some things remember on their own.

Hi everyone, I just started going to sessions here in Cork and I'm absolutely terrified lol. Everyone knows the tunes and they're all so fast and I just have my whistle and I'm barely keeping up. Does it get easier? Any tips for a complete beginner?

It absolutely gets easier. Every single person in that session was once where you are now. The experienced players remember what it's like to not know the tunes.

Tips: listen more than you play at first. Learn the Rattlin' Bog if you don't know it already—it's the gateway drug to trad music. Don't be afraid to sit out a tune if you don't know it. And most importantly, the people at sessions want you there. They want new players.

You're going to be grand. Keep going.

Cork sessions are the best. Which pub are you going to? There's a good crowd on Thursdays at Flannery's. I'll be back in Cork next month—come find me if you're there. I promise the terror goes away.

so theres like a whole thing where ppl are trying to sing the rattlin bog in one breath and film it and the CHAOS is unreal. has anyone here attempted it. i got to the feather before my lungs betrayed me

omg i did this!! i actually made it all the way to the hair but i sounded like a dying cat lmaooo. posted it as a private video because i was NOT putting that on the internet haha

flea_verse_supremacy we should collab on a duet version maybe??

This is what we've been waiting for. The song adapts and survives through each generation. It's meant to be sung together, but I love that people are making it their own.

Fair play to all of you on the challenge. You're carrying the bog forward.

I love that the song is alive in these new ways. TikTok challenges. Breath competitions. Who knew? But it makes sense. The Rattlin' Bog was always meant to be contagious. It finds its way in.

BogLord, the hit counter on the home page is showing 4,397,221 hits. That seems... impossibly high? The site went dark for years. How is that even possible?

Is it broken? Or am I missing something?

It's correct.

ok so i was doom scrolling on tiktok at like midnight and someone posted this VIDEO of people singing the MOST insane folk song and i got so obsessed i looked it up and found THIS WEBSITE and i cannot believe this is REAL??? there is a full website dedicated to the rattlin bog??? with like LYRICS and FORUM POSTS FROM 2003??? this is the most unhinged and beautiful thing i have ever discovered

is anyone here?? do people actually use this??? im so confused but im also like totally here for it now

Welcome, Zoe! This is the best post I've seen in twenty-three years. The fact that the Rattlin' Bog is still spreading, that it found its way to TikTok, that it brought you here... this is exactly what the song is about. It's unstoppable. It carries itself forward.

You're in good company. Stick around. Ask us anything.

And yes, people use this. I promise.

Hello? Is anyone still out there?

I've been maintaining this site for over twenty years now and honestly I didn't think anyone was visiting anymore. The hit counter has been broken for ages (or so I thought). But then today I noticed some activity on the server logs and... I couldn't believe it.

Is this place still alive? Or am I just talking to myself?

BOGLORD???

I've been lurking for YEARS. Never thought to post again. But seeing your name just now... lad, I never left. I check in every few months. The site's been a touchstone for me. Thought I was the only one.

Still doing the sessions in Galway. You'd be amazed how many people still know this song.

BogLord. I never stopped coming back. Every year on the day this site launched. Just to read the old threads and remember when we were all so full of hope about the bog.

It's us. We're still here.

LADS. LADS. LADS.

I am shaking as I type this. Someone has uploaded a BRILLIANT recording of The Rattlin' Bog to a website called YouTube. I had never heard of it before today but apparently you can watch videos on the internet now??? For FREE???

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QO8bWGNPyo

I have watched it fourteen times already today. I am not exaggerating. The ENERGY. The HARMONIES. The way the whole room joins in. I have genuinely shed tears. This is everything I have wanted for this site.

I've added it to the home page as well. This is the biggest update since the site launched.

OH MY GOD. BogLord. I just watched this and I am BEAMING. the way they speed up!! the way everyone knows the words!! this is exactly what it's like at sessions and I've never been able to show people who haven't been to one what it's like and NOW I CAN. I'm sending this to everyone I know.

also "YouTube"?? what a name. do you think it'll catch on?

This is class. Fair play to whoever uploaded it. I tried to download it so I can watch it offline but my computer keeps freezing. Probably need more RAM. Does anyone know if you can save YouTube videos?

The performance is quality though. Real session energy. You can tell those are people who love the song.

the future is NOW. video of the rattlin bog on the internet. what a time to be alive. i showed my da and he said "that's grand" which from him is basically a standing ovation

thanks BogLord for finding this. this site really is the best thing on the internet

Happy St Patrick's Day to all the fellow Rattlin' Bog fans out there!! ☘☘☘

I hope everyone sings the bog at least three times today. It's what St Patrick would have wanted.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona daoibh go léir!!

ok so basically I taught the rattlin bog to my class during music hour right? and the teacher was like "oh what a lovely folk song" and let us sing it. and then at lunch EVERYONE was singing it. and then by the end of the day the ENTIRE SCHOOL was singing it and the principal came on the intercom to ask people to please stop singing about the bog

my mam got a phone call home. i regret nothing

Aoife you are a HERO. This is exactly what the song is for. It's unstoppable. Once it gets going it spreads like wildfire. Your principal never stood a chance.

I once started singing it on a bus from Limerick to Dublin and by Portlaoise the whole bus was singing along. The driver joined in. True story.

This song is a memetic virus and I mean that as a compliment. Once you hear it you WILL sing it within 24 hours. That's just science.

Aoife please tell me you taught them all the verses in the right order. I will not have children learning the feather before the bird. There is a SEQUENCE and it matters.

Right lads, settling this once and for all. Which verse is the best verse?

For me it's the flea on the feather. By that point everyone's singing at about 200mph and the whole room is falling apart. The flea is the CLIMAX of the song. The pinnacle. The summit.

Fight me.

Nah the bird on the egg is the turning point. Before that you're just building up, it's all trees and branches. But the BIRD. That's when it starts getting interesting. That's when you think "right this is going somewhere mad."

the egg in the nest!!! idk why but there's something so satisfying about "a rare egg, a rattlin egg" like. an egg!!! in a nest!!! on a twig!!! on a branch!!! it's just so GOOD

also the way everyone speeds up at that point is hilarious

I know this is controversial but I actually love the first verse best. "Now in this bog there was a tree, a rare tree, a rattlin' tree." Just the simplicity of it. A bog. A tree. That's it. Everything else grows from there. It's like... the whole song is contained in that first verse if you think about it. The bog holds everything.

late to this but: the HAIR on the FLEA. if your version goes that far. it's pure chaos. nobody can keep up. everyone's just shouting. it's the best moment in music.

ok i can never remember whether the nest comes before or after the twig. and is it a branch or a bough?? and does anyone do the one with the hair on the flea?? every time i sing this at a session someone tells me i have the order wrong and i want to get it RIGHT once and for all

RattlinFan99 you have come to the right place!! I've put the COMPLETE lyrics on the Lyrics page of this very site. Fully written out, every verse, every cumulative repetition. No abbreviations. I spent an embarrassing amount of time getting this right.

The order (in the version I learned): tree, limb, branch, twig, nest, egg, bird, feather, flea, hair. Some people do "branch" instead of "limb" and skip straight to "twig" but I think the limb/branch distinction is important. And yes, some versions go further than the flea but the hair is a good stopping point.

Also: it's a folk song. There IS no single "correct" version. But mine is correct. ☘

BogLord you're a legend. printing these out and laminating them. next session i will NOT be corrected. i'll have PROOF.