I got an email this morning from a student at University College Cork.
They're part of the Irish Music Society there, and they've made the Rattlin' Bog their OFFICIAL ANTHEM. Their official anthem, lads. They're organizing a flashmob in the quad — three hundred students, all singing together.
And they're inviting ME.
I had to read it three times. I thought it was a wind-up. But it's genuine. The president of the society, a girl named Siobhán, was very kind in the email. Said they've been doing the Rattlin' Bog Challenge, and the more they sung it, the more they realized it's a perfect song for bringing people together. It's got the build, it's got the repetition, it's got the craic.
So they want to make it official. And they want me there for the flashmob.
I'm going. Obviously I'm going. I've already booked the train to Cork. I haven't been to Cork for a session in years, and now I'm going to stand in a university quad and watch three hundred young people sing the Rattlin' Bog together.
The song that I've been quietly protecting for two decades — that I kept alive through the silence, through the empty guestbook entries, through the years when nobody cared — is now being CLAIMED by a new generation.
This is the best thing that's ever happened.
I need to iron a shirt or something. I'm going to meet UNIVERSITY STUDENTS who love the Rattlin' Bog.
What a time to be alive.