I still can't quite believe I'm typing this, but it's actually real, so here goes:
I've been invited to FIVE festivals this summer to talk about The Rattlin' Bog.
FIVE.
Not to perform the song — though I might, if you can imagine that nightmare — but to give TALKS. About the history. About the song's journey. About the community. About why it matters.
The big one is Electric Picnic in Laois. I'm doing a panel discussion on "Revival and Resonance: How Folk Songs Stay Alive in Digital Age." That's actually happening. That's not a fever dream. I checked the website three times.
There's also:
— Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann — The actual All-Ireland Fleadh. They've asked me to do a workshop on "Teaching The Rattlin' Bog: Oral Tradition and Mathematics."
— Galway International Arts Festival — A talk called "24 Years Underground: The Shrine and the Song"
— Cork Folk Festival — Sitting on a panel with actual folk music historians
— Listowel Writers Week — Because apparently the song is literature now???
Me. BogLord2002. Seamus from Ennis. The lad who spent twenty-three years running a website that maybe 50 people visited on good days. I'm going to stand in front of CROWDS and talk about why a song about infinite recursion and a flea on a bog matters.
I'm completely terrified. I'm also absolutely chuffed.
I've got months to prepare but I'm already stressed. What do I even SAY? How do I explain what this community has been? How do I talk about the last six weeks without sounding mad?
Anyway. If you see a nervous Irish lad in a Electric Picnic field this June, that's probably me. Come say hello.
— Seamus