I think I’m going to create a new series on this blog called EARWORM, that features the random songs that always get stuck in my head at random times.

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The Rocky Road to Dublin has played in and out of my head over the years since I lived in Japan and taught a unit on Ireland and the Irish in America for St. Patrick’s Day. My Japanese students didn’t know too much about St. Patrick’s Day or Irish culture, so it was fun to introduce it to them. I covered some history, language, dance, and music, and I chose two Irish songs for them to listen to, The Rocky Road to Dublin being one of them. Of course, I couldn’t play the entire song, so I managed to get a shortened clip of it, and I played it for eight or so classes per three different high schools. I was so used to hearing it I had the lyrics in the excerpt completely memorized…just not the whole song!

The Rocky Road to Dublin is kind of tricky! The tempo is fast and there are a lot of lyrics that also need to be sung quickly. But I love the rhythm and patterns of the song, and it’s creative, too.

The version I played for my students was performed by The High Kings:

I have it memorized from From there I got away / spirits never failing / landed on the quay / just as the ship was sailing all the way to the end, ha ha!

In the car while driving around, I tend to sing to myself to stay awake and keep my energy up, so I would usually just burst into this song and sing the only parts I knew. It’s like a tongue twister, really, so it took me a while to get it right.

Some history: the song dates from the 19th century with lyrics by Irish poet D. K. Gavan, and it is believed to have premiered with the words in 1859. It’s still an incredibly popular song today and has been recorded and rerecorded over the decades.

While the High Kings’ version is how I came to know the song, and it would pop in and out of my head over the years, imagine my delight when a new iteration of it appeared…

…in the excellent movie SINNERS.

The song takes on a creepy, foreboding nature as the freshly made vampires, along with ancient vampire Remmick, are singing and dancing, revealing shadows of Remmick’s past.

While the movie only has an excerpt of the song–the beginning and final verses sewn together– you can listen to the entire rendition here, and it’s well done.

So, just when I thought the song was close to leaving my head, SINNERS brought it back.

And it’s not like I don’t enjoy it, either! But it might be my longest earworm ever, one of the many random songs in the jukebox of my mind.

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Readers, do you know this famous traditional Irish song? If so, which version do you know?