The LADS. The absolute LADS on TikTok have gone mad for the Bog, and I mean that in the best possible way.
Someone — and I haven't figured out who yet — started the "Rattlin' Bog Challenge" about a week ago. The rules are simple: sing through as many verses as you can in under sixty seconds. Full energy. No backing track, just you, your lungs, and the spirit of the bog itself.
I've been sat here watching DOZENS of these videos. Young people from Dublin to Cork to Galway and beyond, absolutely FLYING through the verses. Some lad from Limerick did eleven verses in fifty-eight seconds. ELEVEN. His face was red as a turnip and he was gasping for breath but the commitment was MAGNIFICENT. The class of it.
What gets me — and I'm not exaggerating — is the ENTHUSIASM. These are young people who would never have heard of the Rattlin' Bog six months ago, and now they're learning every word, getting it into muscle memory, challenging their mates. It's exactly what folk music is supposed to do. It's ALIVE. It's in the pubs, it's on the internet, it's spreading like the bog itself spreads across the land.
I've watched probably sixty of these videos in the last two days. My cat Rattlin' thinks I've lost the plot (she's probably right). But this is the craic, lads. This is what it's about.
The youth are magnificent. Absolutely magnificent.
More videos keep coming. I can't stop watching them.