The Blindboy Podcast - Essential Turkish Taint

Episode Date: November 22, 2017

Cannabis, Postcolonialism, Lyndon B Johnson and Ghosts . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Podcast number five. Oh, we're all a load of goodbyes. And we're still at the top of the charts. Hello, you princely witches. Welcome back to the Blind Boy Podcast. We're still at the top of the charts, the iTunes charts. Thank you very much to everybody who has been liking and subscribing because it's your fault. The likes and subscriptions are what drive the charts

I believe and listens. There's 80,000 listeners now every week which is pretty class isn't it? Thank you so much. Last week, we spoke about President Trump,

and we spoke about Conor McGregor, and a number of other things that I can't remember. But you've been giving me gorgeous feedback, absolutely beautiful feedback, and I'm so pleased that those of you that are listening are absolutely beautiful feedback, and I'm so pleased, that,

those of you that are listening, are actually enjoying it, and, I got some really positive messages, around mental health, as well, there's some people listening, saying that this podcast,

is of assistance, to their mental health, that it's making them, a few people said, that they were, almost going to have a panic attack and it stopped it which I am enamoured and truly grateful

that that's the effect it had because it wasn't the intention I don't really intend this to be a mental health podcast as such you know, it's just a podcast about anything, but because maintaining my own mental

health is a daily thing for me it's naturally going to go into that territory at times so fair play to you fair play to you if it is having a positive effect that makes me feel fucking good.

That really, really puts a smile on my face. To think that something I'm making in my bedroom can have a positive effect on someone's life. Or just make them that little bit happier. There's no greater gift really than that, is there? I spoke last week about self esteem that is something I think that does that boosts my self esteem that boosts my self worth

not in the I feel class about myself way it's just if something I said helped your mental health it feels like a nice act of compassion on my part I can take that feeling to bed with me

and give it a hug if you know what I mean I can take that feeling to bed and say to myself you did something good today so thank you for that feedback I got more feedback as well Thank you for that feedback. I got more feedback about... Someone mailed me and said that they enjoyed how I read out President Trump's tweet as a...

I read it as a limerick ant. And they wanted me to read some more of Trump's tweets as a limerick aunt. And they wanted me to read some more. Of Trump's tweets. As a limerick aunt. And I quite enjoyed that suggestion. Because it got me thinking of. In the 1980s. When Gerry Adams used to go on television.

The fucking Brits. Even though he was an elected MP. The Brits. Well it was Maggie Thatcher well it was Maggie Thatcher it was Maggie Thatcher specifically didn't want Gerry Adams' voice to be heard his words could be heard

but not his voice so they hired a lot of voice actors to do Gerry Adams' voice on the news and repeat the words that he was saying it was utterly absurd if you look it up on YouTube you'll find a few clips still the same words that Jerry's saying

just a different northern accent and it got me thinking imagine when Trump is talking just for the crack instead of his words, or instead of his voice and his accent, it's a limerick aunt, a drunk limerick aunt

at half two in the morning ready to embarrass the life out of you as she misinterprets your Facebook post as to being about her and spouts a bit of drunken vitriol

so I'm gonna start off the podcast by reading not trump's tweet but i read it at some of a recent speech that donald trump gave the speech that he gave to boy scouts when he met all the he you remember that don't you trump went over and spoke to the boy scouts and then happened to mention a lot of sex things in front of children but mostly was kind of sucking his own flute about the fact

that all this huge crowd showed up and going look at the size of this crowd and it's like it's mandatory Donny, they're Boy Scouts they had to attend, you're not allowed to take credit for that one you stupid cunt okay here's Donald Trump

Donald Trump's 2017 speech at the Boy Scout Jamborees delivered as your limerick aunt into your ear as she gently sways on the

couch beside you after her bought two bottles of west coast cooler thank you everybody thank you very much I'm thrilled to be here, thrilled and if you think that was an easy trip you're wrong, but I'm thrilled

19th bicycle jamboree, wow and to address such a tremendous group, bye But I'm thrilled. 19th Biscuit Jamboree. Wow. And to address such a tremendous group. Boy, you have a lot of people here. The press will say it's like 200 people. It looks like about 45,000 people. You set a record today.

You set a record. That's a great honour, believe me. Let's put aside all the policy fights in Washington, D.C. and all the fat no's. I'll tell you a story that's very interesting to me. When I was young, there was a man named William Leavitt. You have some here. You have some in different states.

Anyone here a Leavitt town? And he was a very successful man. Became unbelievable. He was a home builder. Became an unbelievable success. And got more and more successful. And he a home builder. Became an unbelievable success. And got more and more successful. And he'd build homes. And at night he'd go to these

major sites with teams of people. And he'd scour the sites for nails and sawdust and small pieces of wood. And they'd clean the site. So when the workers came in the next morning the sites would be spotless and clean. And he did it properly. And he did this for 20 years

and then he was offered a lot of money for his company and he sold his company for a tremendous amount of money at the time especially this was a long time ago sold his company for a tremendous amount of money and he went out and bought a big yacht and he had a very interesting life I won't go any more into that

because we're boy scouts so I'm not going to tell you what he did will I tell you you're boy scouts but you know life you know life so look at you who would think this is boy scouts right you get the gist

those were the actual words of the most powerful man in the world do you know what fair play to him fucking lunatic he's off his rocker though you know he's em you know he tweets whatever he wants

you know he tweets whatever the fuck he wants because he's lived his whole life in intense privilege he's never had anybody say no to him he doesn't know what that feels like and he displays

peacock levels of narcissism but it gets me wondering you know there's been other lunatics who have been US presidents but because there was no social media

the public never really got to see how mad they were and who springs to mind is a lad called Lyndon B. Johnson he was the 36th president of America from 1963 to 1969 he's the fella who came after Kennedy

he was John F. Kennedy's vice president. So when Kennedy was shot, Lyndon B. Johnson immediately became president. Whether he was electable, we don't know, but he was vice president and when the president dies, the vice president becomes president. And Lyndon B. Johnson was a mad cunt he was once asked by journalists how are we going to win the Vietnam War

and they kept pressing him and pressing him it was a private meeting and Lyndon B. Johnson, I think he had a big cock and he used to tell everyone about it he whipped his langer out, slammed it down on the table, pointed at his flaccid penis and said, this is how we are going to win

the Vietnam War. Lunatic. There's also, there's a few conspiracy theories that he was the man responsible for killing Kennedy because he was a Democratic, a Senator from Texas, I think,

and Kennedy was shot in Texas. So there's a few old conspiracy theories floating around he certainly benefited from Kennedy's death because he became fucking president he was one of these incredibly macho

aggressive southern types but this is why I think even more so than Trump if Lyndon B. Johnson had Twitter holy fuck the shit that we would have seen

and something beautiful emerged a good few years ago and it's a telephone call between Lyndon B. Johnson and his tailor and this leaked after Lyndon B. Johnson and his tailor and this leaked after Lyndon B. Johnson's death I don't know why it was recorded

I think there's just a policy of recording any phone call that comes from the President's office so this is a beautiful, wonderful telephone recording between Lyndon B. Johnson and a tailor and Lyndon B. Johnson wants some pants made for him and I don't know

is he showing off or what is he doing but he's clearly as mad as a shopping trolley full of seagulls get a little listen to this this is real uh mr hager yes joe hager uh joe uh is your father the one that makes uh clothes yes sir we're all together uh y'all made me some real lightweight slacks uh uh he just made up on his own sent to me three or four months ago it's a kind of a light brown and a light green, rather soft green and soft brown,

and a real light weight. Now, I need about six pairs for some of where. All right. You can pause back there. I just wanted to see where we get it right for you. Fifteen pounds a month. All right. So leave me at least two and a half, three inches in the background.

Let them out or take them up. Make these a half, three inches in the background. Let them out or take them up. Make these a half inch bigger than the waist. Make the pockets at least an inch longer. My money and my knife and everything fall out. We're just... Hello. Hello. Now, the pockets, when you sit down in a chair, the knife and your money comes out.

So, I needed at least another inch in the pockets. All right. Yeah. Now, another thing, the crotch down where your nuts hang is always a little too tight. So when you make them up, give me an inch that I can run out there because they cut me. They're just like riding a wire fence. These are almost the best that I've had anywhere in the United States.

But when I gained a little weight, they cut me under there. So believe me, you never do have much margin there. Let's see if you can't believe me about it. An inch from where the zippering ends, round under my back of my bum hole. So I can lay it out there if I need to wow wow imagine that man

had twitter so that was 36th president of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson ordering a set of trousers from a tailor so many questions first of all what the fuck is he doing with a knife in his pocket

why does the president of America have a knife in his pocket that will fall out of his pocket if his pants are tailored incorrectly I mean what about that what about if he was sitting down with a delegate from fucking China or Russia

sitting down and his knife falls out onto the ground is he taking the piss I think he was just showing off and then he burped quite loudly and then the piece de resistance the very end and there's a beautiful little pause

when he references his anus he says leave some space for the crotch where your nuts hang because it rides up my bum hole and he left a beautiful little pause because he just mentioned the knife and he just mentioned his nuts

and then you can hear in his own head he's going fuck man I'm the president I'm the president I'm on the phone right I'm after taking this I'm after going very far with this I'm after going very far already can I mention my rectum

can the president of America make reference to his rectum over the phone will this disempower me in some way is a mention of my rectum have i crossed the line between am i being a bit gay i'd say that's what he was thinking in his head i'm a hard man who carries a knife in my pocket even though i've got secret service may i mention my anus and to do so on the phone

to another man is that a bit gay I don't think it is I'm gonna go there make the pants so they don't interfere with my rectum

please sir President of America thank fuck he didn't have Twitter because he was handling shit during the Cold War, when, uh, global nuclear war was an actual possibility.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was about a year previous to that. If you don't know what the Cuban Missile Crisis... Sorry, if you don't know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was, you probably do, but I can't assume that. That's the closest the world ever came to destroying itself. The United States reached, I think it was DEFCON 4. They were ready to fire nuclear missiles at Russia, and Russia to do the same to them them because Russia had put some nuclear missiles in Cuba

fucking terrifying time and you know what I'm grateful for imagine the state of the news if clickbait existed during the week the couple of weeks of the Cuban Missile Crisis can you imagine what clickbait would have done Russia

definitely launching missile says source do you know, at least the press then would have had a certain degree of responsibility in how they report this terrifying situation clickbait would have went nuts, they wouldn't have given a fuck imagine Buzzfeed.

Cunts. They couldn't give a shit. But that's the thing, of course. And I'll take it back now to your own mental health and keeping an eye on yourself. A significant source of anxiety, it is fair to say, is the media today.

Specifically, the media as it occurs on the likes of facebook i mentioned a few podcasts back that i'm trying to give you this thing called what i call a podcast hug i want you to listen to my podcast and to feel relaxed and comfortable and open minded and not critical em you know here's an interesting little thought experiment I'm a great man for hot takes, a hot take is a it's an opinion that

causes a bit of an emotional reaction you know it's sensationalist opinions I'm full of sensationalist opinions half the shit i say on this podcast if i was if i was to say that as a twitter status or a facebook status people would react in anger but when you say it on a podcast people take it on board and don't react emotionally because that's podcasts aren't for that space you kind of grow I disagree with Blind Boy's comment

that's fine I'm going to move on with the rest of the podcast because on Facebook you'd be calling me a cunt but yeah so news is also about hot takes especially the headlines of news as they appear in Facebook and clickbait. And it can be very stressful and it can cause a lot of anxiety, especially around issues like terrorism, you know.

Statistically, and this is a fact, you can look it up, the Western world has less terrorism and less terrorist acts now than it did 30 years ago right now it feels like terrorism is all over the gaff technically it's not but the fear of terrorism is up very very high because it drives clicks and it creates a lot of money. News organisations now, unfortunately, journalists can no longer rely upon sales of newspapers. And that's a sad thing, it's a bad thing. And the profession of journalist is disappearing and being replaced by content creator, you know, which is a shame because good journalists are class

and very necessary, very, very necessary to a decent society. So the next time you're scrolling through Facebook and there's a scary story and it's making you feel anxious. Remind yourself that unless the headlines of any news organisation online. Unless those headlines cause you to react with anger or fear then they can't make money they need you to click they need you to share they need you to comment or they lose revenue and when you do click it might be quite balanced reporting on the inside but the headline that headline that needs to trigger an emotional reaction in you so just have that mindfulness so you don't allow yourself to get too

frightened of whatever the fuck is going on it's a game to an extent it's a spectacle news organizations are aware that they're partaking in a spectacle because it's there's no law against frightening people i I mean, North Korea. I know people that are afraid that North Korea are going to launch a nuclear strike. North Korea are going to do fuck all. They'll do fuck all. They've got petrol-powered bombs.

Cuban Missile Crisis, 1963? That was scary shit. That was the real deal. That was the US and Russia with actual intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles actually maybe ending the world

and it ended in an interesting policy called Mutually Assured Destruction the US and Russia and a few other countries agreed if you fire all your missiles the US and Russia and a few other countries agreed if you fire all your missiles we'll fire

all of our missiles and then the world is over which meant that it became pointless to fire any nuclear missiles that's where it had gone to here's a depressing thought. Do you know the way as far as we can see

we're alone in the universe? You know, we're definitely alone in the solar system. We're on this planet as intelligent life forms looking out into the stars wondering there has to be some other civilization out there.

An intelligent civilization like us. And. They're going to reach us someday. They're going to come and make contact with us someday. What if. Life. Is set out in such a way. That a civilization can never

become so advanced that it reaches another because as soon as technology reaches a certain point that civilization destroys itself since the industrial revolution we have been destroying the planet unless it's reversed

there won't be a planet, there won't be human life in maybe two, three hundred years because of global warming and rising seas and all of that shit if, you know, before that time we don't blow the absolute fuck out of each other with nuclear weapons what if that's like an inbuilt code in how life must operate in the universe, like when you're playing a video

game on your PC and you turn the graphics up really high and it runs a little bit slow and then you go fuck it I'm going to put the graphics up to another and it runs a little bit slow and then you go fuck it i'm gonna put the graphics up to another setting and see what happens so you do you put the graphics up to the very top and then your computer crashes what if that is the code of life that a civilization will destroy itself before it becomes advanced enough to contact another civilization. And as a result, all civilizations believe themselves to be perpetually alone in the giant universe. And God is just hanging around the place in a t-shirt, laughing,

drinking Galahad. And he's an evil bastard, and enjoys it very very much that's depressing God isn't real as well by the way life is meaningless chaos and we create meaning because humans are unable to comprehend irrationality

and a life without meaning. We strive for meaning and purpose and we hate change and we hate uncertainty. In last week's podcast I read out a short story called Shovel Duds. out a short story called shovel duds and a few he wrote to me said that I should have given you a bit of a warning about it because it was incredibly incredibly disturbing and you know what it's a fair point I should have but there was a part of me that kind of wanted to shock you for the crack a few people wrote as, wanting to know if I was alright in the head. I got a direct message from a girl called Sheva and she said, I have to know, how deep into research did you go for shovel duds? I wasn't sure how to feel after hearing it. All I could

think about was how the hell you research the story to describe it so accurately. Because it was pretty dark, the dark story. It was about a girl from Tipperary who works in an abattoir and finds great enjoyment in harming animals and wants to join ISIS because she's addicted to watching ISIS videos and she wants to

cut up some buys you know I'm not mad I spoke in podcast one about the state of flow and how I write using a technique called flow where a story kind of reveals itself to me

that story shovel duds was one of the few stories where And how I write using a technique called flow. Where a story kind of reveals itself to me. That story Shovel Duds. Was one of the few stories where. There was flow present when I was writing it. But I had a kind of a fair idea of what I was going to do. Specifically. You know I did a lot of reading and studying on psychopaths. And how psychopaths think. And how how they behave and what they obsess on

and things like that and I imbued that into the female character in the story Kira and how deep did I go with my my research I went very fucking deep I have a technique

that I use sometimes for writing called on the body writing if I step in dog shit if I fall off my bicycle if I get soaked in the rain what I do is I will immediately take out my phone and I will write down exactly what that feels like in the rain what I do is I will immediately take out my phone and I will

write down exactly what that feels like in the moment I don't wait to head home I write what does it feel like to be soaking wet, what does it feel like to be walking around with the stinking dog shit on my feet and when you capture that in the moment in writing as honestly

as possible, whatever the fuck it is that goes into your notebook and you use it at a later date because Capture that in the moment in writing. As honestly as possible. Whatever the fuck it is. That goes into your notebook. And you use it at a later date. Because what you get there. Is this strange uniqueness of your reaction. To these surprising things that happen. And that can make a piece of writing.

Seem very unique. And authoritative. And it can draw the reader in. And believe your character, believe their experience so for Shovel Duds what I did is I drank a couple of cans and

Fox News had published a full unedited brutal ISIS murder video which I do not suggest you look at but I did look at it for the purposes of research and I looked at this video like a journalist would have to do if

they were reporting on it and it was intensely horrifying and I wrote down everything I felt, everything I felt on my body my reactions, how I flinched, how I winced, I wrote it all down and then I flipped it I flipped it completely I flipped my horror and for the purposes of the character who was a psychopath

I turned that into joy like a mirror that's how I wrote shovel duds and I was quite happy with it but it did when I finished the story it did freak the fuck out of me it did it scared me but I was proud of myself too you know

it's quite fun to do an unreliable narrator story like that and put yourself into the shoes of a fucking lunatic and view the world through their lens. It's better than virtual reality. In my experience. Having a crack at that.

Sorry if it freaked you out. I suppose the. The soundtrack didn't help either. That was. Quite consciously. Anxiety inducing. But the story for me was kind of. It was satirical. The character of Ciara is based on

girls that I know my female friends who feel that they have to work twice as hard as men to get recognition at the same job they feel in the workplace that.

Men get away with murder. Get to be lazy bollocks. And. That. They face continual criticism. And. In their work. Simply because they're females.

And the men are kind of let off the hook. To do what they want. And that's really what the story's kind of about. It just happens to be set in the absurdity of someone who's so passionate and loves their job at murdering so much that not even ISIS will take him on grounds of sexism and also the fact that she put a wig on a cow and set it on fire and ISIS were like fuck off love

stay the fuck away you lunatic don't get us wrong we've done some mad shit but we're not touching that okay stay in tip someone else said to me then jeez you must be on some drugs to be coming up with the mad shit that you're coming up with for the short

stories no I'm not em there's no no drug is going to beat the hidden powers of the unconscious mind which is what you access during a state of flow and even something like hash

or weed I don't think that services creativity at all it will service mad ideas and irrational and absurd ideas when it's

assisted with a substance like weed there's no structure to the like weed, there's no structure to the absurdity. There's no underlying hidden structure to the mad ideas you come up with. They're just mad for mad's sake. So I would never, I'd never smoke a joint and write. Just wouldn't do it.

Drink. Drink isn't too bad I'd write and have one or two pints maybe three nothing that would

make me slurry but you know that relaxing hug off a sip of drink I find that can that can

not help writing but it doesn't get in the way you don't need it but it doesn't get in the way of writing other stuff would get in the way of doesn't get in the way you don't need it but it doesn't get in the way of writing other stuff would get in the way of writing and get in the way of ideas hash as well as a hashing cannabis is a weird one for me because i i have an ethical position on cannabis in Ireland and I think

because of the law it's not very ethical to smoke Irish weed now there's the obvious one of you know you're putting money into the pockets of criminals but

the thing is the type of criminals but the thing is the type of criminality, a lot of weed in Ireland, okay is grown, it's Chinese weed, it's grown in grow houses by an international criminal gang

called the Triads who are, they're a Chinese criminal gang and what they do the Triads who are, they're a Chinese criminal gang and what they do the Triads have been in Ireland for years right, they've been in Ireland since the 70s and usually what they used to do is they'd knock on the door of the local Chinese takeaway and they would say

look, you're paying us a grand a week in protection money, go to the guards if you want, we don't give a fuck it's your family back home in china you have to worry about because we can get them there so they would extort chinese restaurants and they've been keeping to themselves and this is what they've been doing in ireland places for years but recently what the triads have started doing is getting into the cannabis business right what they'll do now is they'll knock on the door of a chinese takeaway

and they will say to them we don't want extortion money what we want is your upstairs room and we're going to grow a load of weed and it's going to go onto your electricity bill and you're going to let us do it you're going to facilitate us and if you don't we're going to hurt your family back in china this is where a lot of Irish weed comes from and to understand the scale of this I just read an article the other day it's about a year old

and there's a Limerick based triad gang and they're taking over the drug territory that was formerly run by the Dundon McCarthy gang in Limerick which were one of the biggest gangs in Ireland that are now defunct

it's pretty big so here's the issue I have ethically right these triad gangs are also involved in human trafficking so what they actually do, a specific gang called the Sun Yianian they're Hong Kong based

they're growing weed in Chinese takeaways up and down the country or in secret grow houses then they're bringing poor Chinese people to Ireland right and how they're doing this is a Chinese person who's poor

will go to the triads and say can you smuggle me into Ireland so I can get a job as a cleaner or get a job working in a hotel or whatever, something under the radar. The triads will say yeah, we can organise that. Do you know what?

You won't even have to pay us. What we'll do, we'll smuggle you over and then as soon as you get to Ireland you just have to work for us for a while, is that ok? so the dirt poor Chinese person says grand, yeah, crack it a whip but that's not how it works out because the

triads are bastards so what happens is the person is smuggled into the country, their passport is taken and to pay off their debt to the triads, they are essentially used as slaves. And they are the ones that are forced

into these grow houses, growing weed up and down Ireland. They're not allowed to leave the grow house ever. They stay in there 24 hours a day. They sleep there. They look after the plants. Their food is brought to them. But then, stay in there 24 hours a day, they sleep there they look after the plants, their food is brought to them but then when the guards

raid a grow house when they find out there's weed being grown who gets arrested? the fucking poor Chinese slave who can't prove anything because he's got no proof that how he got here nothing like that there's something like

recent figure I saw, there's 350 chinese nationals in irish prisons in this exact situation people who are essentially slaves not the not the triads who are running the grow houses but people that are forced to do it so when you buy cannabis in ireland there's a very very strong chance that that's the system that you're supporting and of course that's the law's fault cannabis should be 100% legal and regulated in Ireland

for it to be ethical and for it to be safe and I'm not comfortable with supporting that system ethical weed maybe one of your buddies grows it I don't know

but here's the other problem with the current laws in Ireland around weed cannabis psychosis is a real thing alright

we all know people who are have serious mental health issues that were triggered by using cannabis and smoking weed right

and one of the reasons that this is is that they did a study two years ago, channel 4 funded it but they did a study in a London university into the effects of cannabis on the brain there's two main chemicals in cannabis there's thc and there's cbd thc is what gets you high okay cbd is what kind of chills you out a bit cbd is the kind of the property

in the chemical and cannabis that has medicinal properties. So most of the weed that's grown illegally has unnaturally high levels of THC and incredibly low levels of CBD. And what this study found is that when high THC is present and low CBD is present, this increases the risk of cannabis-induced psychosis. And natural cannabis has got a balanced level of THC and CBD. And CBD protects the brain from things like psychosis and memory loss and paranoia.

So it's the situation with cannabis in this country because of the law is no different to if drink was illegal if alcohol was illegal in this country we'd still be drinking it but we'd be buying poutine that's made in someone's back garden with no regulation and no safety and people will be dropping dead left right and center from bad batches that's what will be happening and the cannabis industry in ireland isn't far off it you've got people going off their rocker because when you go to a dealer and buy this weed you don't know what you're getting and chances are it's got incredibly high thc and low cbd it's not safe when i was growing up there was no weed at all it was just hash because i don't know why exactly

i'm going to guess something to do with the ra and connections with afghanistan but that's just i'm just guessing because it disappeared after decommissioning that's just my guess it's hard to find hash anymore but this study proved that hash naturally has a balance of THC and CBD so hash is actually quite a lot safer than smoking weed if cannabis was legal in this country we'd be able to walk into a shop and you'd have many different selections of cannabis on display like cheese not cheese the variety of cannabis but like like you can walk into a deli now and buy whatever type of cheese you want depending on strength you'd be able to walk into the shop and choose a variety that has a healthy level of cbd in it and know that what you are smoking is not going to damage your brain and may actually have medicinal

effects and this is based on a study that was done two years ago in England you know em it's fucking ridiculous that it's illegal I don't know why that's the case the only negatives that I can see as a result of cannabis are because of the

fucking law if you buy a 50 bag off a dealer and by dealer I mean the same people that are also selling pills or selling fucking heroin if you buy off them you are supporting

a system of slavery and human trafficking and you're buying something that will seriously have a negative effect on your mental health so human trafficking, and you're buying something that will, seriously, have a negative effect on your mental health, so, let's try and fucking legalise it, to fuck,

because people aren't going to stop smoking it, it's absurd, in 2017, do you know, you're not going to drink poutine, with fucking window, window lean inside it, like,

also as well you know there's people like Vera Toomey whose daughter Ava who her she's about four years of age and her life is destroyed

from these fits and seizures that she gets and cannabis CBD in particular is the only thing that can sort her out and she doesn't have access to it in Ireland. Even though technically medicinal cannabis was supposed to be legalised in Ireland last year.

I don't know what's happening. So there's more important things in the country than legalising weed, you know. With the homelessness crisis. But it's something to keep in mind when you're speaking to your TD I think here's an interesting fact that nobody seems to fucking know medicinal cannabis

comes from Limerick this sounds like a hot take it's not, there was a physician in the late 1860's I think called William Brooke O'Shaughnessy from Limerick City. And he was a doctor. He fucked off to India. And when he was in India, he noticed that everybody there was smoking hash for all of their ailments. So he looked at it and said, it what's this did a lot of studies

into it and he is considered to be the man who introduced the therapeutic use of cannabis to western medicine and that man is from limerick and nobody in limerick knows typical fucking limerick you know that's pretty legendary you know there's medical there's medical research seriously looking into cannabis as a cure for certain cancers you know I don't know have they anything proven yet but they're looking into it seriously and limerick doesn't

celebrate this fact couple of years ago we've got a bridge in limerick called the Shannon Bridge used to be called the Whistling Bridge because the railings on it, when there was a high wind, the bridge used to scream, which I thought was pretty class. But then they got rid of the railings because it was freaking people

out. Can't have a city if the bridge is screaming. I think you can, but not the city, obviously. So they wanted to rename this bridge. So I tried to start the campaign to have this bridge named after William Brooke O'Shottnessy because that would be pretty cool you know

acknowledge this man who introduced cannabis to western medicine I also suggested that they should engineer the railings so that it whistles the tune of Red Red Wine by UB40 whenever the wind blows that wasn't so popular so in the end they named the bridge

they decided they were going to name it after JFK for no fucking reason other than yank tourists JFK's got no connection with Limerick whatsoever yart

but that's Limerick for you you know that's Limerick City em Limerick's weird you know I love Limerick with all my heart and soul I'm from limerick

I want to live here for the rest of my life I might fuck off over to Spain when I'm older if I could afford it but yeah there's this place I go to called Cordoba in Spain and I only like it because it's like hot limerick it looks like limerick but it's hot it's where I wrote most of the book but limerick is

it's kind of plagued with bad luck or something, we've, we're technically still in recession, while the rest of the country is prosperous, we've the highest suicide rate in the country. We topped polls there with something like littering and poverty. And Limerick has a terrible, terrible fucking image. When you say to somebody outside of Limerick that you're from Limerick, they flinch. They get a queasy feeling in their stomach. They flinch. They get a queasy feeling in their stomach.

The only people that seem to understand this are people from the north side of Dublin. Now I know that's a very old... Dublin's got dodgy areas all around the gaff, but the north side, when you say north side Dublin, people have this perception of it as being far more dodgy than it is same with Limerick Limerick has a perception of being far more dodgy than it is Limerick isn't dodgy at all

Limerick's a lovely place and the people are fucking sound it's just and I'll say the same for the north side of Dublin I know Gardiner Street, for the north side of Dublin, I know Gardiner Street, I know Summerhill, I've walked down these areas, many times,

never encountered any trouble, but Limerick, I don't know, it's, it's not run properly, the city centre, is fucking gorgeous, it's empty, a lot of people,

trying to work hard, to improve Limerick's image, ourselves included, try my best, but there's this there's a thing they say about Limerick it's called the curse of Saint Munchen and Saint Munchen was a monk in the 12th century

and while Limerick was just a little Viking settlement Saint Munchen came from at the area that I think is around Shannon and he came into Limerick was just a little Viking settlement, St. Munchen came from the area that I think is around Shannon, and he came into Limerick, and Christianity hadn't really, you know, St. Patrick came over in the 8th century, but Christianity hadn't really taken a hold, you know.

There was no internet back then, so it took a while for an idea to spread. So St. Munchenen as the legend goes wanted to build a church in Limerick just outside the Viking settlement along the Shannon River and when Saint Munchen

the monk asked the men of Limerick for help to build this church they said fuck off away out of it you fool we don't want to help you and Munchen went and built a little church himself

but was so pissed off with the men of Limerick that he put a curse on the city and said this city will forever be plagued by bad luck and whenever something doesn't go right for us down here. Such as. You know we were supposed to be.

We went for the city of culture. 2020. And Galway got it instead. And we were all very disappointed about that. You know. We all said that was the curse of St Munchen. You know because Galway. Galway deserves it.

Galway is an amazing city. It's hopping. All these arts festivals, the lot. But Limerick needed it because it would have been a big injection of European money. It would have really stimulated the economy. We needed it. So we say that's the curse of St. Munchen. And I think one day I actually accidentally found Munchen's church. Now I could be wrong. I tried to get on to a few local historians to see if I was right. But I was wandering around North Circular Road in Limerick. And I went down a little cul-de-sac.

And there's this housing estate. But in the middle there's this very, very old. The ruins of this tiny little grey church. And I don't think it had a name, and I think, based on where, St Munchen's church should be, according to the legend,

which is just outside the city, outside what would have been the city then, which was only around King John's Castle, and near the Shannon River, I think this little, ruins of a church, in North Circular Road, are, St Munchen's church, Near the Shannon River. I think this little. Runes of a church. In North Circular Road. Are.

Em. St. Munchen's Church. Could be completely wrong. Maybe I just want to believe it. Because it's interesting. But I will tell you another thing. Years and years and years ago. Now I'm an agnostic atheist right.

But years and years and years ago. A few of my brothers. They could have been smoking joints. I don't know they were hanging around because they had bodies down by that area they were hanging around that church at around 10 at night

they were about 50 yards from the church and my two brothers and I grew up with this story when I was a kid my two brothers who would have been about 15, 16 and their friends swear swear blind to this day that they saw a floating monk, a monk across the

way with his head down in his vestments float across the road and disappear into a wall, a ghost of a monk and I don't know what to think of that you know what are you going to do what am I going to do I'm a rational human being we all know somebody who we trust who's got a ghost story and

my two brothers who I believe saw a floating fucking monk and it was five minutes away from where I believe St Munchen's church to be I don't know what are we going to do

I think those last few minutes definitely count as a fucking rant Jesus Christ but fuck it it's a podcast that's the point of it Missed the birth. Bad things will start to happen. Evil things of evil. It's all for you. No, no, don't. The first omen.

I believe the girl is to be the mother. Mother of what? Is the most terrifying. Six, six, six. It's the mark of the devil. Hey! Movie of the year. It's not real.

It's not real. What's not real? Who said that? The first omen. Only in theaters April 5th. Rock City, you're the best fans in the league, bar none. Tickets are on sale now for Fan Appreciation Night on Saturday, April 13th when the Toronto Rock hosts the Rochester Nighthawks at First Ontario Centre

in Hamilton at 7.30pm. You can also lock in your playoff pack right now to guarantee the same seats for every postseason game, and you'll only pay as we play. Come along for the ride and punch your ticket to Rock City at torontorock.com. Going to move on now to some of your questions that you asked. Some of the questions that you sent me on Twitter to answer. So I got a DM, a very good question in a DM

from a man who calls himself One Legged Duck good name sir podcast question why do so many people want to claim to be Irish I'm British and loads of people claim

ancestry and loads of Americans too. Why is it so attractive? Or is it misty-eyed bollocks? P.S. My grandad was Irish. That's an interesting one because it is quite common. You do get a lot of people wanting to be Irish you know you'll get a yank who might have had a great great

great great grandfather that was Irish and they will identify as Irish same with the Brits personally I think that historically being Irish it's one of the few types

of white person that you can be being Irish it's one of the few types of white person that you can be without thinking you need to feel guilty about your heritage that's my opinion the

Irish people suffered 800 years of colonial oppression which didn't really end you know, we thought we ended it in 1922 when we got our independence but then it carried on in up north, the north of Ireland

well into the 60s, 70s, 80s you know that's the only reason I can think of you don't, the perception is that you don't have to feel guilty if you are Irish because the Irish as a nation never partook

in colonial activities as a result of our post-colonial condition as well we've got some pretty class music, our culture and tradition is one of the underdog,

the artist as underdog. Our songs, you know, our music, our literature, how we party. This is the perception. But then that begs the larger question of, you know, This is the perception. But then that begs the larger question. Of.

You know. Are the Irish allowed to. Be the only white skinned people. That don't have to. Kind of. Experience white guilt. Yes and no. We did not partake as a nation officially in the Atlantic slave trade of Africans. But that isn't to say that Irish people didn't.

The facts will show that certain Irish people did partake in the slave trade and profited from it. Quite a bit. If you want to hear more about this, there's a lad on Twitter. His Twitter handle is Limerick1914, Liam Hogan. And he's doing some trailblazing research in this area. I'd love to have him on the podcast someday to talk. And I might have him because he's based in Limerick. And I chat to him a lot. so if he would come on the podcast

that'd be cool but the other thing too the myth of the Irish being slaves, right you'll see Irish Americans using this twisting it to their own advantage

when they're actually being racist the myth goes that the Irish were taken from their land in the 1700s and the 1600s by Oliver Cromwell and forced into slavery in Barbados and the Caribbean and places like that. And this is why as well, when you hear a Jamaican person talking, they sound a bit like me or a Cork person

you know the old classic with the Jamaican accent is you know if you want to say bacon in a Jamaican accent you say beer can but if you ask me to say bacon I go bacon

like a Jamaican accent because the Caribbean accent does come from the Munster Irish accent that's a fact but does that mean that the Irish were fucking slaves not really no many many

Irish were sent to the Caribbean against their will forcibly to work on slave plantations. Alongside. African slaves. They had horrible lives.

They faced the same struggles. That the Africans did. But there's a crucial fucking difference. The African slaves. Were chattel slaves. They were not considered human they were never ever free okay when an african slave had a child their child was considered property they suffered ownership and slavery across generations perpetual that could not be escaped the irish person that was sent to barbados to live an equally

horrible life uh work in the same plantations they could work for their freedom eventually they could work maybe 10 years 15 years still fucking horrible but that irish person could have freedom eventually and a lot of those Irish slaves. In averted commas. Went on to own plantations. And then own African slaves themselves. So. It is not at all accurate.

To say that the Irish were slaves. They were not slaves. They were indentured servants. It's still horrible. But there's a crucial difference. Crucial difference. Regarding. The Irish were still allowed a degree

of humanity the African slave was not allowed humanity so the other thing that happened too and this is very interesting this is explored in a book called How the Irish Became White very interesting book if you want to look it up

because that's a mad title, How the Irish Became White. Very interesting book if you want to look it up. Because that's a mad title. How the Irish Became White. It explores race as a social construct. Okay. And it follows the history of. The Irish of the 16th and 17th century. Who suffered unbelievable oppression. In the Ireland that they lived in.

Irish Catholics in the early 18th century, late 17th century, I think I might be mixed up with the dates, they were subject to what was known as the penal laws. And these were colonial laws that were brought in to disempower the native Irish and to wipe them out these laws meant that an Irish Catholic Irish person could never couldn't get an education

couldn't practice their religion couldn't I think they weren't allowed to own horses they weren't allowed to have weaponry they couldn't own they couldn't allowed to have weaponry they couldn't own a decent amount of land, it was basically

a system that was put in place from birth where you would never succeed as an Irish Catholic, you would always be under the boot of the Protestant ascendancy the aristocracy and this was very, this is very similar

we say to the Jim Crow laws that were brought in in the the American South after the Civil War. Very similar laws were brought in to keep the black people down in the South of America. So the Irish people left this horrible, horrible

systemic racism and oppression of Ireland and they arrived into America, okay? And they were sent to the most poorest ghettos of America, whether it be down south or usually to New York. And they lived alongside freed African slaves for a very short period, especially around the five- point districts of New York City which is near Manhattan the Irish and the black

man, black person lived together in kind of a common understanding for a bit but what the Irish soon realised they no longer faced the systemic oppression they faced in Ireland they were certainly looked down upon by the posh Americans who were essentially the children of English people they were looked

down upon but not as much as black people the Irish for the first time ever, experienced the colour line. They understood that they could climb the system of American privilege by using their white skin to their advantage. And they did that by becoming horribly racist towards the black people who were their neighbours, which resulted in what was called the New York Draft Riots. Not sure of the year, it was sometime around 1860 maybe anyway when the American Civil War was going on the Irish were used as cannon fodder

for the North in the fight against the South so the Irish were being torn out of the slums in New York to go down and fight the American South, right? The black people in New York were not brought down to fight in the South because racism meant that they weren't allowed to become soldiers. The Irish then got pissed off at this. They blamed their black neighbours for this situation and they hung many black people in New York.

The Irish hung many black people in the docks of New York around the late 1800s. And from that, the Irish went from hard-working, tough, working-class people to climb the ranks of the US politics, usually through the Democratic Party. And they fully partook in what we would call white privilege

and this is why if you look at Trump's cabinet today you've got people whose second names are Conway, Kenny Ann Conway Paul Ryan fucking Steve Bannon, all Irish Americans you know

so that is how the Irish became white according to this thesis called How the Irish Became White great book yeah that's quite interesting isn't it similarly when the Irish

were leaving Ireland to go to America to work the Catholic Emancip, Daniel O'Connell, he held a series of meetings in Ireland, one of which happened in Limerick, in what is now a restaurant called The Buttery in Limerick, in Bedford Row. And Daniel O'Connell brought over Frederick Douglass.

Frederick Douglass was a freed slave who had gained an education for himself. He was a black man. And this was about 1840-something. Frederick Douglass, anyway, togged out, come over to Ireland to do a series of talks

with Daniel O'Connell to speak to the Irish people that were about to leave for America. And the point of the conversation was, is that Daniel O'Connell was saying to the Irish people, now remember there's no media, there's no newspapers, the Irish people at that time, they weren't educated, they couldn't read, they'd never seen a black person in their fucking life.

So Frederick Douglass comes over and speaks to them. And O'Connell basically says, do you see this fella here Frederick Douglas, do you see his dark skin, I noticed that a lot of ye are going to be heading off over to New York within the next year, well I tell you what this shit that you're facing here

these penal laws, this oppression over in America, this man and people who look like him are facing the exact same shit. So when you arrive on the shores of America, it is your duty as Irish people to align yourself with people who look like him because it is a common struggle. And if you go to America and you do not do this, you are no longer allowed to consider yourself an Irish person. Now that is a paraphrase of the gist of O'Connell's speech. You can look it up online, that's the gist of O'Connell's speech. You can look

it up online. That's the gist of it. But that's what O'Connell said. If you go to America and do not support the black man in his struggle in 1847 or 48, you are no longer Irish. Sometimes that's what I say to Irish Americans online to piss them off. When they are using this racist shit Irish Americans not all of them the Trump supporters you'll see them online trying to devalue the experience

of black people by saying well the Irish were slaves too and look we're fine we don't still complain about it but it's like yeah you had white skin you were able to climb the ladder of privilege to get where you are today

black people could not do this they were stuck in generational slavery and then had to wear their skin and that kept them from climbing the system the way that the Irish people were able to through whiteness so I tell Irish Americans

that are being racist Daniel O'Connell said that you're not Irish anymore fuck off please and they hate it there I went political disagree with me if you want one person who kind of understood O'Connell's

message and took it into the 20th century was the civil rights activist Bernadette Devlin she was a civil rights activist for the Catholic community in the north of Ireland at the height of the Troubles

this was the 60s early 70s and by which time the Irish Americans This was the 60s, early 70s, by which time the Irish-Americans had become very powerful, obviously. Bernadette Devlin was invited over to New York by Irish-American Democrats. I'm not sure who, but powerful Irish-American politicians

who, at the time, were very supportive of, inverted commas, the cause, which is another thing, if you want to piss off Yanks, remind them of how the Irish-American establishment supported the IRA. But anyway, Bernadette Devlin was brought over and she was given the key to New York City right and you know what she did

fucking gas bitch she says to the mayor of New York thanks very much mayor thanks for the key of New York City they're a fair play to you she leaves the building City Hall with the key of New York in her pocket jumps onto the subway, fucks

off up to Harlem, meets the Black Panthers and gives them the key to New York City and basically says fuck you to the Irish Americans and says to them shut the fuck up, alright? If you're going to be supporting the struggles of the Catholic Irish against the colonial powers of the British Empire, then ye better watch what ye are doing to the black people in America. It's the same shit, so cop the fuck on. That's what Bernadette Devlin was doing. So fair pay to her for having that kind of progressive intersectionalism at the time. That was pretty on the ball activity. But, you know, why else are the Irish considered cool branding branding

the Irish pub is a very very odd phenomenon of the Irish pub which is spread far and wide across the globe in China and Dubai and Russia and Ukraine. You'll find an Irish pub fucking everywhere. And they're not often run by Irish people.

And I was reading a little bit about it recently. You'll hear me talking a fair bit about the philosopher Jean Baudrillard and hyper-realism and hyper-real simulacra. Big complicated words, but they're not very complicated concepts. What a hyper-real simulacra is, it's something in culture whereby it's a post modern thing where when something becomes a copy of a copy of a copy

it loses meaning it becomes a perversion of its what it originally is there is this thing called the Irish pub concept it's a branding and marketing idea that's funded by Guinness

if you look it up online the Irish Pub Concept it's funded by Guinness Diageo the Irish Tourism Board a few other people so if you are an entrepreneur in China

you can go to the Irish Pub Concept website you consult with them for a fee and they will show you how to build the perfect Irish pub. And it's driven mainly by how to sell Guinness in China or in Ukraine or in Japan. You buy this concept of how an Irish pub should be, how it should look, how it should feel, how it

should smell and you plant this in China and give it a name like Ryan's. There's no Irish people involved in the construction of it. It just is this copy of Irishness based on memory and forced by a

brand. It is a Baudrillardian hyper real simulacra. I've been in these pubs in my travels around the world and forced by a brand. It is a Baudrillardian hyper real simulacra. I've been in these pubs in my travels around the world. And it's fucking weird. Cause. Where was I in one? In Singapore. I walked into this Irish pub in Singapore.

And it just. It felt wrong. It was kind of right and it was kind of wrong. And I was drinking my Guinness. And going yeah this is a hyper real simulacra, this is a version of Irishness that has been created by somebody

who has had no experience of Irishness but rather had it explained to them by a brand and Guinness fund the hyper real simulacra of Irishness and export it around the world as a brand to sell their drink but what it does is it creates the idea of Ireland being the land of

crack and getting mouldy and having pints that's our cultural identity when you see the Irish pub concept as this brand you wonder is this cultural identity real or is it a simulacra is it fabricated by a corporation Guinness as well should be noted had very serious talks in the early 70s

when the IRA were at the height of their bombing campaign Guinness had serious branding talks about whether or not they should continue to associate their drink with Irishness because Irishness in the 70s became synonymous with bombs

and terrorism and guns and Guinness were ready to get the fuck out and go we need a new identity we're going to keep the drink but we'll find something else maybe fuck off over to Jamaica they make good Guinness there or Nigeria

they've got good Nigerian Guinness Guinness we're ready to go but they sided with the workers during the 1913 lockout so it's not all bad today's podcast is sponsored by Guinness it isn't it's fuck

but thank you one legged duck for that question I hope I answered it it certainly inspired a rant that I enjoyed doing sadly this week there will not be a short story because my publisher went apeshit because I was giving away too many of the stories for free

em the store short stories from my book the gospel according to blind buy which is still doing very well in the Irish book charts I think it's number 4 or 5 last time I checked I can say there is going to be

an audiobook because of this podcast I wasn't sure at the start but because of this podcast and the feedback that I've been getting about the short stories there's 15 of them, I've given you 4 I'm going to release an audiobook with ambient music all that shebang

and I'll keep you updated about when that's going to be available I'd love to give it to you updated about when that's going to be available. I'd love to give it to you for free. But. That's capitalism. And my book company doesn't want to. And you know what?

I spent a year writing it. And I'd like to get paid. And that's okay. Please continue liking and subscribing the podcast. Um. Thank you so much for listening all the time. I'm loving the feedback that I'm getting off this I tell you last year I wrote a four part

fucking series for RTE called the rubber bandits guides and I love it I'm very happy with it and we're both very proud of it and it went out on TV and I don't think anybody fucking watched it even though it was on the national broadcaster. I got barely any feedback from it.

It took me six months to make. Writing. Shooting. So much work. And I've been getting more positivity. And engagement. And feedback. And appreciation.

For this simple one hour podcast. That's made in my bedroom. Than anything I've ever made for fucking television. That required massive budgets. And people. And help. And all of this shit. And to me that.

That shows me that the system is fucking broken. The system is broken. Because what you don't get on television. Is you don't get passion television is you don't get passion because too many fucking cooks spoil the brat if i'm to make something on television or for radio there's going to be about three or four commissioners saying do this again do that again fix it change it and it's like no fuck off i'm the creator let me do what i want to do because what you get at the end of it then is

i don't know a sense that i like actually making it which i do i love making this and i love you listening to it so thank you so much for tuning in every week and talking out and this podcast is going nowhere gonna keep doing it because i fucking love doing it and i'm gonna be writing a second book as well so when that's happening i'll be keeping you updated as i'm doing it please like and subscribe go in peace have a lovely fucking week best of luck to you look after yourselves Thank you. rock city you're the best fans in the league, bar none. Tickets are on sale now for Fan Appreciation Night on Saturday, April 13th when the Toronto Rock hosts the Rochester Nighthawks at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton at 7.30pm.

You can also lock in your playoff pack right now to guarantee the same seats for every postseason game and you'll only pay as we play. Come along for the ride and punch your ticket to Rock City at torontorock.com.