I got a very odd email today.
A woman named Mairead from Limerick went to a car boot sale last weekend. She picked up a shellac record in an old paper sleeve. The label, faded but legible, reads:
The Rattlin' Bog - Traditional - 1847
She attached a photograph. I've stared at it for about two hours.
Now, here's the thing: recording technology in 1847 didn't exist. Not like that. Shellac records weren't even a thing until the 1890s. Edison's phonograph was 1877. This is impossible. The label must be wrong. It's probably a mislabeling from some novelty manufacturer in the twentieth century, trying to make it seem older and more authentic.
But I can't stop thinking about it.
Mairead says the record itself looks genuinely old. She's not a collector, but she said it feels brittle and sounds crackly when you play it. She couldn't quite make out the melody through the static and surface noise, but she swears it's our song.
I've asked her to send it to me for inspection. Part of me thinks I'm being mad, chasing a phantom. The rational part knows this is someone's mistake or a prank.
But the other part — the part that's spent twenty-three years keeping this website alive, the part that believes in the Rattlin' Bog with an almost spiritual intensity — that part is wondering.
- The year doesn't mean anything. Doesn't mean anything at all.
I'll let you know what Mairead finds when she plays it again.