The Blindboy Podcast - It'll Be Grand

Episode Date: May 12, 2021

A cultural history and analysis of the Irish phrase "It'll be grand" and how it relates to a Limerick man who robbed people on an ostrich in 1860s Australia Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Blind Boy Podcast, you fizzy Catrionas. If you're a brand new listener, you are more than welcome. I suggest going back and listening to some previous podcasts, rather than just starting with this one, to familiarise yourself with the lore of this podcast. And if you're a regular listener, you know the crack. Thank you to everyone for the very positive feedback to last week's podcast where i spoke with the fantastic sabina brennan who is a neuroscientist so thank you to everyone for

the feedback for that it was nice it was nice for me as well it was nice to to i don't think about the human brain much i think about the abstraction of the human mind and emotions and these concepts but listening to sabina last week describe how things happen in the brain it was really fascinating and i'm glad i'm glad a lot of you got something from it too because the thing is too with neuroscience some people just learn in different ways and mental health some people can be more accessible when it's spoken about in the physical and mechanical language of the brain um there's an event i'm doing this friday an online event that i'm really really looking forward to that i want to tell you about right so the iris association for counseling and psychotherapy the iacp are doing this big huge

event called essential conversations and what it's about really is it's about psychotherapy and counseling but it's it's not necessarily for psychotherapists and counselors it's for the general public to kind of democratize it and as you know i studied psychotherapy and counseling i didn't complete my studies but i studied psychotherapy and counseling and if I didn't end up in entertainment what I'd probably be doing right now is I'd be practicing as a psychotherapist that was my plan and if you like if you like listening to me speaking about mental health on this podcast and when I speak about things like cognitive behavioral therapy the humanistic therapy of Carl Rogers existential therapy or when i speak about

transactional analysis if you like my podcast around these things well that's me speaking about the theory of psychotherapy those are the theories that inform what a psychotherapist does and i use these theories on on myself for my own self-help so I studied that shit in college for a couple of years and I never finished my qualification but if I had the organization I would have joined would have been the IACP it's like the accrediting body for psychotherapists and counselors in Ireland if you're aor or a psychotherapist in Ireland you kind of have to you're overseen by this body

but anyway on Friday I think it starts at 10am and it's like a day long online event which is completely free, it's free if you want to attend it which I suggest you do go to eventbrite.ie.

And look up IACP Essential Conversations. And I think you can like register for a ticket. So what I'll be doing is I'm going to be hosting this event. So I won't really be talking at it. I'll just be introducing the different panels. But the panels that are there. Are really really interesting. And you've got different people.

Who are counsellors or psychotherapists. Speaking about their field. And what they do. are really really interesting and you've got different people who are counselors or psychotherapists speaking about their field and what they do like there's a few different talks but the ones that stand out for me that I'm really looking forward to is there's a therapist called Phil Gormley right and what he does is what's called walk and talk therapy which is it's counseling it's psychotherapy but you don't like sit down in a counselor's office across the way from your therapist it's a more creative way of therapy and it's particularly effective with with men in particular men who may have difficulty in opening up in conversation so what phil garmley does with his walk and talk therapy is he might go literally go for a walk with the person who's in counseling

or might kick a football around do you know what i mean and it's therapy but it's something that's more natural to everyday life and And I'm fascinated about that. So I can't wait to hear that talk. There's also a chat between Dilvrik Rimesing and Ajiro Obeguan. And Ajiro is, she's a Dublin based counsellor and psychotherapist. And she founded Black Therapists Ireland. And which is, it's about therapy and mental health for people of color in Ireland because the thing is is with therapy and I mentioned this last week

effective therapy and counseling it has to be unique to the needs of the person who's in counseling and we all have unique needs and a lot of counseling not just counseling but a lot of psychology is firmly rooted in western principles of thinking in in a kind of a western european based logic and that doesn't effectively accommodate people who come from non-western cultures you know counseling also has to accommodate people from different cultures and different belief systems and ways of thinking about other people and the self so i'll be really looking forward to that talk because that's that's something i touched on before with the psychic psychiatrist pat bracken he spoke about this but i'll be really looking forward to that chat

so if you're not doing anything on friday and you want to attend a huge online seminar where you get to watch loads of different chats about counseling and psychotherapy which is catered towards the public then you can do it and it's free um just type in essential conversations with iacp into eventbrite.com and you should be able to register for it so this week's podcast i have a bit of a hot take i have a hot take which is is it's not fully formed it's formed enough where i can feel i can explore it with you okay so i want to explore this so there's this do you know the way when you live in ireland you kind of just know that the government or any type of state body will just fuck things up and I know that sounds negative but whether it's

the Irish government whether it's something like the HSE which is our health service or even a local council you kind of just have this confidence that something really hilariously

incompetent is going to happen. And it usually does. And that's, it's an experience of living in Ireland. Now, of course, sometimes things go right. But you kind of just know, like, as soon as anything is announced by the government you kind of go what way are they actually going to fuck this up you don't think will they fuck this up won't they fuck this up and you can't have confidence in whether it's going to go right you kind of just

go i need to guess in what ridiculous way they're going to fuck this up. And that is a negative way of thinking, but it's also something that's kind of proven to us over and over again. Like, for instance, last April, April 2020, which would have been just when the coronavirus panic was kicking off and we didn't know what it was going to look like and people were looking at the tragedy that was happening in Italy with overcrowded hospitals the Irish health service wanted to order a load

of PPE equipment um for health professionals for nurses and doctors and whatever so they spent 208 million I think it was ordering PPE equipment from China and again I remember thinking how are they going to fuck this up and then the PPE equipment arrives and it's like totally not fit for purpose and it it was the wrong size and then it turned out that the HSE, the person who they'd contacted to get the PPE equipment, was like an event planner or someone. He was someone who used to run circuses, I think. And you're just left with fucking hell. 208 million, really?

And the PPE equipment doesn't fit. Wow, in a pandemic. Fuck me. What a fuck up. But when it happens. You're not really outraged. Because you're like. I just.

I knew. I didn't know how they were going to fuck it up. But I just knew they were going to fuck it up. I just knew. And we all kind of feel that. And they're like. Well you really surprised us with this one. I didn't think.

During a huge pandemic that the clothes would be tiny and that's what you were going to do but thanks for the surprise and that's kind of your reaction or in in 2019 the Dáil which is like the Irish House of Parliament they needed this giant printer I don't know why they needed the giant printer but they needed this huge printer to print things and it cost 2 million for this huge printer so they bought it with taxpayers money

and then when they bought the giant printer they found that they didn't have a room in the parliament that was big enough to fit it and it's just like oh really ok 2 million on a printer you can't fit it and it's just like oh really okay two million on a you can't can't fit it in the building wow i'm not shocked i'm not surprised it's you you have surprised me with how you fucked

it up but i knew you were gonna fuck it up or or like just last month okay or when ireland started getting vaccines for the coronavirus and we're we're quite behind when you look at uh we'll say the uk so ireland when we were all told okay the vaccines are coming to ireland let's be honest what did we all think let's be really honest wow how are they gonna fuck this up you know that's literally my first thought how are they gonna fuck up the vaccines and then the vaccines come in and the HSE which is the Irish health service there's only so many vaccines so these are very useful vaccines are very useful things in a pandemic so the HSE get the vaccines and then they start giving them to their workers who aren't even on the front line.

Workers who work in administrative, workers who are working from home and aren't on the front line and don't really need vaccines. For some reason, the HSE decide, you're first in line. You, at home at your computer, who doesn't see other people. You need a vaccine. Not like teachers or nurses and stuff you who's working in the accounts department and you're at home and not in an office you need a vaccine and we all went yeah we knew you were gonna fuck it up we just didn't know how i'm not

surprised that you fucked it up i'm just surprised at the way that you did it that was very creative so living in ireland it feels like um there's a brilliant film called spinal tap most of you will know spinal tap if you're younger if you're in your 20s you might know spinal tap look at spinal tap it's a mockumentary from 1980 it's fucking hilarious a really really good film about a heavy metal band and a lot of the like the simpsons writers and simpsons voice actors are in it spinal tap is incredible but there's a scene in spinal tap where the band spinal tap are planning their tour and they want to have a huge show a stage show and there's a part in the show a really important part where they want a huge replica of Stonehenge on stage so they go to the meeting with the person to design the Stonehenge set

but when they go to the meeting the person brings a small replica which is about four foot tall the lads don't have a proper conversation and then when it comes to the gig there's been a miscommunication and a giant stonehenge that suits the stage isn't built instead it's a tiny one and the band's spinal tap instead of getting outraged or doing anything about it they just go oh fuck they're after making us a tiny stonehenge we just have to go ahead with it so they have this tiny tiny stonehenge on stage and they have to get little people really small little people who are dressed in like elves to dance around it and that's a bit what living in Ireland feels like you know the the Irish Parliament spending two million on a giant printer that doesn't fit into the building.

That's spinal tap shit. And we just kind of accept it because we're used to it. And I have a theory this week that I want to explore. Because I think about this a lot. As to why does this happen in Ireland? about this a lot as to why does this happen in Ireland? Why can we so confidently assume that when a large public body gets together to do something that they'll fail hilariously, that it'll be a colossal ridiculous failure? How does this happen? I think it has something to do with the phrase,

the Irish phrase, it'll be grand. And that's what I want to speak about this week. I want to speak about it'll be grand, not only as a phrase, but as something that's part of our culture as Irish people. And the thing with it'll be grand, so it'll be grand is a thing that we say. It's, for the most most part it's really helpful it's it's really chilled out it's really calming when you're in a stressful

situation and you're worried you just say it'll be grand it'll be grand and it'll be grand means don't worry about it don't worry about it things will work themselves out this is what it'll be grand means don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Things will work themselves out. This is what it'll be grand means. Every Irish person says it. And it's one of the things that when tourists come to Ireland and they describe us as laid back, it's because of it'll be grand culture. And it serves a purpose and it can be very helpful

and it slows things down a bit and it makes us a bit chilled out but when too many Irish people say it'll be grand to each other when you have a critical mass of Irish people saying it'll be grand especially on a professional project. That's when things fall to shit. So I've started looking at Irish catastrophes, Irish failures of planning, and I've started to look at it through the lens of too many people said it'll be grand in this situation, and that's why we're in such a ridiculous scenario.

Like, here's a prime example. I'm from Limerick City. And when you live in Limerick City, this shit is amplified by four. Okay? Limerick City Council, they really fuck things up in hilariously glorious ways. You know, you can really be confident that Limerick Council will do something utterly ridiculous with public money and they did this time last year so this time last year we'd just come out of a big lockdown the country was opening up we were trying to get

people used to the idea of we're going to open up pubs and restaurants but we're going to do it in a new way all right you can't go inside you have to adhere to social distancing you're going to have to eat and drink outside we were all optimistic about it but we just didn't know how they were going to fuck it up just yet so in limerick for example the logical thing to do is, okay, restaurants are going to open up with restrictions. Here's what we should do. Put tables and chairs out in the streets, like they do in Spain. Like they do in Spain, it'll feel like holidays.

Put tables and chairs outside, so then people can sit outside with social distancing. That's the sensible thing to do when you're opening up the restaurants during a pandemic. Limerick City Council had a different idea. They thought, here's what we need to do. We need to get everybody into the city, but we need to remind them what food and dining is

because they haven't seen it in two months so we need to remind everyone what food and dining is but what about chairs for them to sit down on no no no these people haven't seen a restaurant in two months we need to remind them what it is okay what's your plan we're gonna get 10 grand and we're gonna hire an artist to make giant cutlery and instead of loads of tables and chairs that people can actually sit on how about one giant table with two giant chairs 20 foot high and we'll put it in the middle of the city so that's what they fucking did they made giant cutlery and one set of giant tables and chairs i mean fucking 20 foot high and put them in the city as a type of public art and then everyone like went to the city

to go ah class all the restaurants are open excellent where do i sit down oh there'll be no sitting no no what we've done instead, instead of pedestrianising streets and putting lots of small tables and chairs that you can sit on, we've instead made one giant set of tables and chairs over there. The one that's 20 foot tall.

And if you look at all the lampposts, there's 10 foot cutlery hanging off it to remind you of what it was like. And here's the other part so Limerick has an image problem Limerick is called Stab City it's an unfortunate name I fucking hate the name

Limerick has an unfair association with being a violent place but Limerick's nickname is Stab City okay unfortunately when you say it to people Limerick they think Stab City the Okay. Unfortunately, when you say to people Limerick, they think Stab City, the place where you get stabbed with knives. So when Limerick City Council were designing the giant cutlery to hang off the lampposts, someone said, but it's Limerick. You can't like hang a giant knife off a lamppost because if you hang a giant

knife then someone will think stab city so limerick city council said don't worry it'll be grand what do you mean it'll be grand we're not gonna hang any knives we're gonna hang a fork and a spoon instead there'll be no giant knives. But people don't eat with forks and spoons. It'll be grand. Don't worry about it. It'll be grand. So they did that. It wasn't grand. It wasn't grand.

It went viral in Ireland. The whole country laughed at Limerick. Down in Cork. What were they doing down in Cork? Down in Cork where they have their shit together. In Cork what were they doing down in Cork down in Cork where they have their shit together in Cork

they just literally put tables and chairs on the pedestrianised streets and put tables and chairs there for people to sit and eat not in Limerick

they went with conceptual art one giant table and some forks and spoons ten foot forks and spoons hanging off lampposts

and it was so embarrassing they took it down overnight they took it down overnight and you're not allowed to talk about it but that that's spinal tap shit right there and and when something like that happens when something as utterly bizarre as that happens and you're left pulling your hair out going how the fuck did a did a council how did a group of people together decide that the best solution was giant forks and spoons how the fuck do you do that it's because too many people said it'll be grand too many people said it'll be grand and then that happens And it's the same

with the Irish government. We've got 200 million. We need to get some PPE equipment for all the doctors and nurses from China. We need to get it real quick. Sounds great. Have you correctly vetted the person who's sourcing it? No, no, it'll be grand. Same with the HSE thing. We've got the vaccines. We've got loads of vaccines. Let's first give them to administrative staff who don't see people at all. Do you think maybe we should give them to like nurses and doctors first?

No, no, no, it'll be grand. So the thing is with it'll be grand, the attitude of it'll be grand, on an individual level, it can be quite useful to relieve stress in a situation so the phrase it'll be grand is a positive thing in Irish culture on an individual level it can be really helpful it reduces stress it can reduce conflict here's an example if you're running late for an appointment.

If you're stuck in traffic. And you think you're going to be 10 minutes late. And you know that it's outside of your control. Instead of creating unnecessary stress or anxiety. You say to yourself. It'll be grand. I'm going to be 10 minutes late. It'll be grand.

And you know that the people that you're going to be late for. Are also saying fuck it he's late it'll be grand so when you arrive no one's really on your case that much when you're 10 minutes late everyone kind of says it'll be grand and it works out in that type of situation it'll be grand is really useful and it makes us laid back and chilled out. It's not as effective when it comes to, we'll say, our bus service. You can say to yourself with utter confidence in Ireland that your bus is going to be late. Your bus is going to be late in Ireland. That's just a given.

An absolute given. Alright? Especially local bus services. You just know it's going to be late. You see poor old German tourists, just they can't understand it. It's like the bus said it was going to be here at four o'clock and it's five past four. What's going on? It'll be grand, don't worry about it. And then the bus driver comes out and says, it'll be grand, get on the bus, sure I'm here now. That's when it'll be

grand is unhelpful. You never want your doctor to say it'll be grand. And when it'll be grand is unhelpful. You never want your doctor to say it'll be grand. And when it'll be grand is most dangerous in Irish culture is when a group of people together, a group of Irish people together say it'll be grand. Then that's when shit gets mad fucked up and you end up with hilarious catastrophes. Individual it'll be grand. Reduces anxiety. De-stresses a situation. Can remove conflict. But collective it'll be grand.

A collection of Irish people saying it'll be grand on a project. Is basically what you're saying is. I wish to admonish all responsibility and hand it over to fate. When a collection of people say it'll be grand, you collectively acknowledge that there's no leadership. There's no leadership, there's no plan, and there's no desire to see something through to the end. It'll be grand collectively always pops up.

The project is done 90%, but when that last 10% needs to be done in a thorough fashion that's when all the Irish people start saying it'll be grand together and you go for a pint like it's it's a group of people who as individuals

can do nothing but as a group can only agree that nothing can be done that's what It'll Be Grand is when it starts finding its way into public service, politics, anything that requires leadership and responsibility. And it's something I've had to bring into my awareness. It's something I've had to really remove from my way of thinking because I'm an independent artist. I have to self-motivate to get projects done I

have to really see things through to make sure that I can work to the best of my capacity so I have to silence my inner voice that says it'll be grand when I get to the end of a project and go no it won't be fucking grand it will not be grand I need to accept and take responsibility and try my best and risk failing. And I've had to re-pattern myself to do this. And I've had to develop the confidence over the years, in particular when I work in television. Because when I work in Irish television, it's me, a huge team of Irish people,

all of us together are working towards this one goal. And whenever I hear the little it'll be grands popping up around a problem, I have to go, no, no, no, we need to do this properly. We need to do this properly now, please, because my name is on this fucking project. All right. So it won't be grand. It won't be grand. Please, can we just try a little bit harder? project all right so it won't be grand it won't be grand please can we just try a little bit harder and that's what i've had to do over the years to myself and figure out a way to communicate it to other irish people in such a way that i'm not being a prick so i want to look at it'll be grand i want to look at why it's present in irish culture where it came from and why I think it exists and what we can do about it.

So I brought this up on Twitter about two months ago. The dilemma of it'll be grand and especially when a collection of Irish people say it'll be grand and the amount of American people, Americans in particular and a few English people, but mainly Americans, the amount of American people Americans in particular and a few English people but mainly Americans the amount of American people

who like quote tweeted my tweet or responded and said thank you for saying this that the bane of their life when working in Irish offices or Irish universities that the culture of people saying it'll be grand

gives them huge anxiety they're going no it's not going to be grand we have to do this thing fucking properly we have to do this properly what do you mean it'll be grand what the fuck does that mean you're just going to not finish this thing you're just going to hope for the best the fuck and one English person tweeted at me and this this was really telling so this English fellow was working in an Irish office for years. And when he was leaving the job, the Irish people made him a little parting present, like a funny parting present. And it was a custom made poster, a framed poster. And it said, keep calm and it'll be grand.

And that told me so much. So in England or in the UK, they have the phrase, keep calm and carry on. Now, that's a phrase from World War Two, right? When before the Blitz in Britain, when the Germans were going to bomb Britain during World War II, the Ministry of Defence, I think, put out these posters that just said, keep calm and carry on, and it was saying to the people of Britain, there's going to be bombs, there's going to be loud noises, but we need ye to keep calm and carry on what you're doing.

That's how you get through this. And it's a very useful phrase. And carry on what you're doing. That's how you get through this. And it's a very useful phrase. It's keep calm. Don't get distracted. And carry on with what you are doing.

And focus on the goal. And. You know. When you live in Britain. Britain. You know. The fucking empire. That stole all the resources from all the world and got to be this highly functioning place

when you have those resources you can have the confidence in the powers that be to go fuck it man i'm gonna keep cam and i'm gonna carry on because i'm confident that someone with more power than me has got this shit under control so this is my job i'm gonna keep cam and carry on within the context of british culture and the empire and the resources and money involved. You can do that. Now, it'll be grand is a little bit like that. Except we don't have the carry on part. It'll be grand means chill out.

Chill out. Don't worry about it. Just don't worry about it. But there's no finish your fucking work there's no do things properly it's just the relax part and this english man who was working in the irish office his co-workers had made this funny gift because this had obviously been a huge problem that had happened when he was working in an irish office he just couldn't understand everyone saying it'll be grand when he's trying to say keep calm and carry on, finish the fucking job.

But then some Australian people started replying to my tweet about it'll be grand. And the Australian people started saying, we have the exact same problem in Australia, except we don't say it'll be grand. We say she'll be right, mate. And it means the exact same thing. She'll be right mate and it means the exact same thing she'll be right mate and they were saying this is the bane of our country whenever there's a problem we say she'll be right mate and we open a beer and we chill the fuck out and then things fall to shit and i find that really fucking interesting and of course i have hot takes around this but before we get into the hot take and explore this further let's have a little ocarina pause. and mental health to support life-saving progress in mental health care. From May 27th to 31st, people across Canada will rise together

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not in Ireland if you're based outside of Ireland recommend the podcast to a friend on your social media or whatever that makes a huge difference I love getting new listeners from like America and Canada and places like that that's fucking fantastic stuff catch me on twitch once a week where I am writing a musical to a video game live thursday nights at half eight twitch.tv forward slash the blind by podcast and then if you want to become a patron patreon.com forward slash the blind by podcast thank you very much to all my patrons you give me a a stability that is very hard to find when you're an independent artist so thank you so back to the phrase it'll be grand in irish culture why do i think it exists how does it contrast to the

british version keep calm and carry on and what about the australian version she'll be right mate she'll be right mate so with anything that's kind of ubiquitous in Irish culture you know me I always look at it from a post-colonial lens always now some people think oh does that mean you're blaming the British

not necessarily what because Ireland was colonised by the British for 800 years you can't detach contemporary culture from that and in particular you can't detach the impact of trauma on how we view ourselves how we view ourselves as a nation how we view other people and how we speak the English language which isn't our language it's a language that was forced upon us so when I look back through 800 years of history and view things through a colonial

lens it's not I blame the British therefore nothing can be done it's much more like if you go to counseling or therapy when you go to counseling or therapy and you're having difficulty with your life you go through your childhood and you don't go through your childhood to blame you go through your childhood to go where are the unhelpful things that I have learned how can I identify them so I understand them and then change the narrative. So that's what a post-colonial lens is to me. So keep calm and carry on. That's an effective, useful phrase because why would you not have confidence in your government or your civil service or your national health service historically if you grow up in britain these things tend to work at britain was an empire it controlled

a huge part of the world it had massive resources shit worked properly you can believe in a phrase like keep calm and carry on in the context of British history you can really believe in that you can feel like someone is in charge with Irish history you can't really say that okay historically you've got a foreign power the British who are in charge of the country so if you're an Irish person yes someone is in charge but they're not in charge of your interests whatsoever in fact they actively hate you not only do they actively not rule in your interest and they're actively oppressing you um you're being told that your culture isn't of value your language isn't of value and a huge huge narrative that the British government always placed on Ireland,

especially around the late 1800s and stuff when we were looking for things like home rule. A continual narrative from Britain was, oh, we'd love to give Ireland back to the Irish, but the Irish really aren't capable of ruling themselves. Let's be honest. It's for your own good. If we left, it'd be chaos you can't look after yourselves and then you go back further penal law times where the average irish person

isn't allowed to own property isn't allowed to vote isn't entitled to an education you're effectively at all times working for like an english landlord on land that you don't own. When you start looking at culture from that perspective you can understand why a phrase like it'll be grand would arise. Why historically would you want to work very hard on a project when you don't see any material benefit from that project when your labor is being exploited you know should we fix oh we're fixing this fence or we're building this wall for the landlord's plantation it's not quite right i kind of want to get off work in a half an hour it could be so much better but what i have right now is grand it'll do it's fucking grand what's the point in making the best wall here so something like keep calm and carry on that functions when there's

a culture where you can at least have hope it'll be grand is rooted in a culture where there's no hope and you might be thinking but but Blind Boy, it's 2021. How could a phrase like, it'll be grand, now, what does that have to do with 200 years ago? But the fact of the matter is, we'll say the Irish famine, 200 years ago.

It's only like four or five generations away. Here's the mad thing about human behaviour. Four or five generations away here's the mad thing about human behavior four or five generations is isn't a lot that's my great-grandfather was in the famine he was a child but he was in the famine that's my great-grandfather it's my dad's grandfather like you right now you have a way that you move your feet or a way that you touch your face or you have a way that you pronounce certain words. And this came from a great great grandparent. You might have mental health issues that are rooted in the famine. You know you could have an anxiety response or a depression response that was simply passed down through behaviour from a great grandparentparent and it made its way to you and the cycle hasn't been broken.

That's intergenerational trauma. That's real. Behaviours and views about self and views about culture are passed down. And something like everyone in Ireland saying it'll be grand collectively when it comes to completing a project that's that to me is an example of a cycle that has never been broken it's no longer relevant but we still do it we still deeply unconsciously carry around a sense of hopelessness but that then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy a toxic loop of hopelessness because i started this podcast by saying do you know the way in ireland the only thing you can have confidence in is for an institution to definitely fuck things up you

know they're gonna fuck it up you just have to be surprised about how they're gonna fuck it up that's all part of the cyclical system of it'll be grand in my opinion so let's look at the Australian phrase she'll be right mate which I was told by Australian people means the exact same thing as it'll be grand and also creates similar cultural problems where work just doesn't get done to the best of people's ability because someone says she'll be right mate and everyone chills the fuck out so when you're viewing Australia Australia is

a young country that was colonised by Britain from the indigenous Australian people the British the British said right here's this huge continent it's ours now, it's massive, so in order to build it, we need a bunch of free labour.

So Australia started as a convict colony. It was prisoners. And it was really easy to become a prisoner and get sent to Australia. Most of the prisoners that got sent to Australia were Irish, and some of them were also working class English people. So in Ireland at the time in the 1800s all you needed to do to get sent to Australia forever as an indentured servant essentially was it's a famine steal some food from a landlord to feed your family that's it

go to Australia forever. If you were a member of a group that was trying to overthrow the British government, if you were a Fenian or something like that, that's it. Fuck off to Australia. You're now a convict. You work in a convict colony. And as a convict, your job is to now build Australia. We are the British Empire. We have this new country.

We need towns, towns cities railways and we need someone to clear all the land from the indigenous people you can do that Irish convict and English convict so I reckon the phrase specifically she'll be right mate it's a mixture of Irish culture and English vernacular specifically specifically English naval vernacular, right? I couldn't find any, I went looking at academic journals, I couldn't find anything about this, so this is me just guessing. First off, you have that culture of hopelessness. If you're a convict in Australia and you're building houses or building railways,

you're not going to see the benefit of that. You're working all day long and your labour is being exploited. So you don't have a culture of hope where you're going to make the best thing possible. You're just going to do the most adequate job. You're going to be, it'll be grand. When I hear she'll be right, mate. Now, an interesting thing with the australian australian

english and the australian accent there's a theory now it's not the accepted theory but there's a theory about the australian accent that the australian accent came about from two things irish and english workers not being able to open their mouths properly because so many flies were flying into their mouths so they had to close their mouths a bit and also being really drunk all the time they were drunk because they're the ones building the country

there's no sanitation that's not a joke that's one theory about the Australian accent it was working class English people and working class Irish people connotation. That's not a joke. That's one theory about the Australian accent. It was working class English people and working class Irish people being drunk in the sun, closing their mouths and slurring their words. And the Australian accent developed from this. If you're living in a small little frontier town that's just being built, access to fresh water is going to be difficult. So people beer or spirits instead of water so everyone was a little bit drunk all the time also you had the the navy the navy would have been providing a lot of alcohol a lot of beer and a lot of rum and with

early australian culture the british navy is very much part of that so she the phrase she that ship language that's naval language in the navy ships are referred to as she so things get referred to as she then mate is another naval term mates are like shipmates things so so they're english vernacular naval terms but then with the attitude of what's the fucking point in building this wall properly what's the fucking point in building this wall properly? What's the fucking point? I don't own the wall. I'm being treated like a prick. She'll be right, mate. So there's a lovely little Australian story that I found out about when I was doing my research that I want to tie in with She'll Be Right Mate and It'll Be Grand and it's an amazing story about a Limerick

man who found himself in Australia in the 1860s but before I tell you that so remember at the start of the podcast where I was listing out all the recent failures of Irish institutions because of It'll Be Grand culture

and when I was speaking about Limerick in particular All the recent failures of Irish institutions because of it'll be grand culture. And when I was speaking about Limerick in particular, the thing with Limerick, my city, like Limerick's not a violent place. Limerick's not a dangerous place. These are bullshit labels that are put on us from the outside. As a Limerick person, you know what Limerick really is? Limerick is surreal. That's what Limerick is. If people want to know what makeserick really is limerick is surreal that's what limerick is if people want to know what what makes limerick special we have a very high tolerance for irrational and surreal

things it's part of limerick culture our humor is very surreal it's just a mad place so when you mix it'll be grand culture into limerick you not end up you not only end up with colossal fuck-ups but the fuck-ups tend to be amazingly absurd like the coronavirus response let's build giant tables and chairs and 10-foot cutlery Like that's just. Mad. Like there's another example that comes to mind. And it was only last December. Where. There was.

Again lockdown had been lifted for Christmas. And they tried to put on this event in Limerick. For families. Which was. A Santa's Grotto Winter Wonderland. Drive through experience. So in the brochures. For this event in limerick and it was expensive it was like 40 quid for a family the brochures said that drive to this location and

there's going to be a full santa's grotto with lights and there's going to be workshops with elves working in the workshops making toys and then you drive through this winter wonderland and then at the end you get to meet santa claus and he gives you a present guess what happened too many people said it'll be grand it should have been cancelled they should have realized we can't pull off what we've promised we can't make a santa's grotto we should cancel this no no it'll be grand. So here's what happened, and I'm going to actually read from the media reports about it. Families had to drive to an empty car park in December at five o'clock in the evening,

so it's pitch dark. There's no lights. There's just a queue of cars in a dark, empty car park at the back of an industrial estate. There's no elves. There's no Santa's grotto. What they do have are tents that they bought in B&Q.

And then teenagers dressed up in makeshift elf costumes. And then finally, when the family drives through the line past the teenagers in the elf costume to finally meet Santa at the end. This is a real quote from the article. When the family arrived at the final stop of the drive-thru, they were met by Santa Claus, who was about 18 or 19 with black hair and had an eyebrow piercing. That's a fucking real quote. That happened in Lerick this christmas and it's really sad

because you've got a car full of children wanting to meet santa claus and it turns out that santa claus doesn't even have a beard it's just some young fella with an eyebrow piercing i mean that's terrible for the kids but fuck me is it funny and why did it happen because too many people said it'll be grand. We need to cancel this. We don't have a Santa costume. We don't have lights. It's just a fucking dark empty...

It feels like someone's going to get executed. It feels like someone's getting shot here. And you're bringing families here. We need to cancel this. No, it'll be grand. So let's take it back to Australia in the 1860s. For you mix it'll be grand and The Bizarreness of Limerick into The Outback

of Australia so in Australia these convicts that were sent to Australia, the Irish convicts and the English convicts a lot of convicts were just like fuck this I'm not even getting paid for this, I'm just building a lot of convicts were just like, fuck this.

I'm not even getting paid for this. I'm just building, building, building all day. I'm getting out. So quite a lot of convicts escaped the colonies and they went out into the bush, out into the wilderness of Australia. And they became bush rangers, they were called. Bush rangers were outlaws. They were Irish-English outlaws.

They escaped the colonies and they operated as robbers, as highwaymen. And some of them became like folk heroes. The most famous example, of course, is Ned Kelly. Ned Kelly and his family, who I'll probably do a podcast on at some point. Ned Kelly and his family, who I'll probably do a podcast on at some point. Ned Kelly and his family were Irish outlaws. But there was loads of these bushrangers and Irish outlaws. And there's one I came across in particular by the name of John Francis Peggetty, who was born in Limerick in 1864.

So John Francis Peggety was born prematurely so reports say that he was he was very very short he was possibly between four and five feet tall he was very very small and when he got to Australia he disappeared into the bush

he became a bush ranger he wanted to be an outlaw so he would have been hanging around with an outlaw gang of robbers they would have stalked the the roads and highways robbing English people of money now here's the thing about Australia around the colonial period so I mentioned earlier about the British attitude of keep calm and carry on and how this can come from if you're a colonizing country, you can have this collective sense of confidence. But the other problem with English colonialism is that

there's also an incredible arrogance, a desire to shape and change the world to how you want it to be. So what the English did in Australia in the 1860s, they got it into their heads that australia was too barren there was too much empty land so they introduced a fuckload of wild animals that don't belong in australia at all wild animals and and trees and it's still fucked up australia to this day so the brits were like oh this looks a bit like africa so let's bring over loads of camels and ostriches and in australia has the the largest population of wild ostriches ostriches and wild camels today that the

brits introduced because they were like this place looks like Africa so let's engineer it to be like Africa which we also own bring over some African animals so there was camels and ostriches everywhere so meanwhile this fella John Francis Peggedy who's a four foot tall limerick man living in the bush of Australia hanging around with a gang of criminals that would be made up of Irish lads and English lads. They're operating, robbing people. But it would appear that John Francis Peggedy is also quite eccentric. He's got that limerick tolerance for very surreal behaviour.

So he was based around an area called Coorong, which is in the south of Australia. based around an area called Coorong which is in the south of Australia okay now the thing with bushrangers is they would go around on horseback, they'd go around on horses and they might steal cattle if they saw it or they'd rob people

on the road and John Francis Peggedy anyway one day is hanging out with his gang in the bush and he sees an ostrich Anyway, one day, he's hanging out with his gang in the bush. And he sees an ostrich. And he's very small and he just decides, Fuck it, I'm going to get up onto the back of that ostrich.

And all the lads are like, what the fuck are you doing, John? There's horses here, what are you doing? And John Francis Peggedy goes, no no i'm fucking jocking that ostrich so john francis peggotty sees a wild ostrich and jumps on its back and because he's so small he's successfully able to ride the ostrich and now he decides he wants to start robbing people on the highway on the back of an ostrich and not a horse. Now the other criminals are probably saying to him, John, what are you doing man? We're trying to not get caught. If you're robbing people on the back of a fucking ostrich, everyone's going to know that there's only one man on the back of an ostrich. You're already four foot tall. Now you're on the back of an ostrich. John Francis Peggedy probably said,

either it'll be grand or she'll be right, mate. Don't worry about it. It's an ostrich. Doesn't matter. But then the other thing with John Francis Peggedy is not only is he a highwayman bushranger riding the back of an ostrich, he decides he doesn't like the heat so he starts riding the ostrich naked but when he does his highway robberies

he doesn't want money so what John Francis Peggedy does is he robs stagecoaches on an ostrich and all he wants is women's jewellery so he eventually begins to adorn his completely naked body in nothing but women's jewellery like Mr T. So of course he then becomes incredibly famous because rich English people are riding the wilderness roads of Australia. And now there's a naked four foot limerick man with two guns covered in gold on the back of an ostrich trying to rob him. And he became known as the Birdman of Coorong, Australia's most eccentric bushranger.

And all the rest of the criminals are obviously saying to him John what did we say to you keep it quiet stick to a horse rob the people get the fuck out you don't have to do it in the nude covered in gold on an ostrich

so he gets hunted down because all the bounty hunters are looking for the young fella on an ostrich and he gets shot dead so how many times did that man say it'll be grand to lead him to a series of incredibly ridiculous decisions? So that's the story of John Francis Peggity.

And I love Australia. I can't wait to go back to Australia. I know I have a tour there in 2022 I believe I don't have the dates yet but if I can make it to Coorong I'm gonna try and visit there because they have a statue of him in the in the town of Coorong they have a statue of John Francis Peggedy on the back of his ostrich and he's got kind of a mythical status there where people don't know did he exist or not but the legend in Coorong is when he was shot dead they never found his body

so people go digging hoping to find this pile of bones that has thousands and thousands of dollars of women's gold jewellery all over it and the skeleton of an ostrich and I just think that's a beautiful story

that's a lovely story so I hope you enjoyed that that's all we have time for it was a meditation on the phrase it'll be grand and the harm that I think possibly it's causing and I think we as as a nation should reassess our relationship with that phrase. Understand when it's appropriate.

But the next time you're in a project or you're doing something that requires responsibility. And a couple of people say it'll be grand. Really ask what are you saying there? Will it be grand really ask what are you saying there will it be grand or are you just saying there's no leadership here i don't want to be a leader i don't want to risk failure let's start saying no it won't be grand let's try our best and if we fail at least at least we get to say we tried our best you don't want to fuck something up and go, I could have done better, but I didn't because I said it would be grand.

That's a shit feeling. Also, with these podcasts, a recent vibe of mine with these podcasts is to provide a space for escapism. I want to help you escape listening to these podcasts. escapism i want to help you escape listening to these podcasts the the news cycle and the world at the moment is it's tough going there's a fucking pandemic jesus christ so i'm trying to provide a space to escape and forget about stuff but i do want to mention this week uh just to express solidarity with the people in Palestine at the moment there's some

pretty heavy duty human rights abuses going on there and there's an Irish, a long standing Irish tradition of solidarity with Palestine particularly in the north of Ireland so I just want to acknowledge that because it's a very sad situation and I wouldn't like people to think that I'm

ignoring it I'm ignoring it. I'm going to have a class guest. Unrelated, but I'm going to have a really class guest at some point over the next three weeks. A real exclusive interview. I'm not going to tell you who it is. But I'm really looking forward to doing that. Alright, yart.

Dog bless. Have a lovely day for yourself. Enjoy the weather. Enjoy the weather. weather smell the lovely air it's still a bit chilly still a bit chilly I'm waiting for that warmth doesn't kick in I suppose

until the end of May I'm looking for those warm mornings still a bit of a bite out there 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 center in hamilton at 7 30 p.m 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. Thank you.