The Blindboy Podcast - The Woman whose name was Horse

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

A phonecall episode about accepting the sufferinng of existence Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pretend that Elvis pressed his breast against a tennis racket and NSU venerable Dennises. Welcome to the Blind by podcast. Think of too much base on my voice here, you kinds. If this is your first episode, consider going back to an earlier episode to familiarize yourself with the Lord of this podcast. I'm here in Limerick City and it feels like we're after getting a slap into the face off winter. It's only the second of September. and it's cold and dark and wet. Feels more like October.

It's not usually this bleak this early in September. It doesn't feel like you've downloaded yourself into the middle of winter. That's what it feels like right now. I'm looking out my window and it's sunset. Now I can't see any fucking sun. it's as purple as a Paul Henry painting out there it's very very bleak oh there's the starlings

sorry about that I was just about to say it to ye literally I was just about to say to ye it's so dark and bleak out there and it's evening and the sun is setting and I haven't seen the starlings through their marmoration around Limerick City

and I was worried that they thought, because it's so bleak I was worried that they thought we were in the middle of November. No. So the Starlings right on fucking time. They just did that now at 10 minutes past eight. Now three weeks ago I think it was, three weeks ago, when I spoke about the Starlings doing their evening murmuration live, three weeks ago, I think it was, they're much lower tonight though. That's interesting. I'm so sorry to be speaking about the starlings again, lads. What do you want me to do?

I'm looking out of the fucking window. Three weeks ago, they were doing their murmuration at 10 to 9, I believe. Now they're out there about an hour earlier. This lets me know that, you know, the days are getting shorter. There's less light out there now. Things are about to get bleak. And they fly low. They fly low when there's big heavy overcast cloud.

out there. When the skies are clear and beautiful and pink, then they do their huge displays up high. But when it's overcast or when it's raining, if there's heavy rain, they don't do any fucking marmoration at all. They go straight into the trees when it's raining. Four weeks ago I told you, I told you I wasn't going to get dragged onto the fucking radio, talking about Starlings, sounding like a lunatic. But the Starling situation, it It ended up being national news here in Ireland because of tourism, because tourists were coming to Limerick to look at the Bardshit and then journalists came to Limerick to interview people who were coming to look at the bird shit and see the starlings and then this big huge

article got written about it in the Irish Examiner. About the Bardshit district, Limerick counsellor fucking livid, livid with me, very very upset. and then this week a radio station asked me on asked me on to speak about the fucking starlings and I couldn't resist it

I couldn't resist it even though I said a month ago I'm not going to let that happen don't go on to mainstream media and interrupt people's Darmid Kennedy songs with a starling rant because you risk looking like a fruit cake

publicly see it's different here on the podcast you're making a choice you know what to expect on the radio On the radio, it's like, that's into people's offices and their cars. And on the radio, it's, oh, that fella blind boy with the plastic bag in his head from Limerick, who I haven't thought about in four years.

Who I haven't heard about in four fucking years. Why is he on the radio talking about bird shit? And then, because that's so strange, what happens then is, I then get attacked by conspiracy theorists who think that, they think that I'm like a paid actor a paid actor who's brought on to national radio to push the climate change agenda so I went on the radio anyway

I spoke for 20 fucking minutes on news talk just about bird shit and I willed into existence the very role play the role play of me talking to a fucking radio DJ that I role played four weeks ago I willed that into existence and then it happened

on news talk Blind Boy Boe Club is just back from Electric Picnic. He'll be appearing next on September the 23rd in Vicar Street and on the 27th in the Millennium Theatre in Derry, but he's not joining us today to talk about any of that, rather the gift. That is bird poo. Blind boy, good afternoon. How are you, Sean? What's the Craig?

Thank you so much for having me on. Tell us about Bedford Row. Okay, so there's this street in Imrich called Bedford Row. It's our main pedestrianised street. and so you get the point you get the fucking point you you know I'm on the radio

talking about pedestrianized streets in Limerick for 20 fucking minutes I promised myself I wasn't going to do it promised myself that that exact thing wasn't going at least it wasn't me arguing with a counselor from Limerick City Council at least that didn't happen and you hear I'm going

you sure you don't want to promote your gigs no don't want to talk about the upcoming gigs that you have there no I'd like to talk about bird shit please my fucking edge of rang me up my agent rang me up afterwards livid

like when I have gigs I'm supposed to go on the radio on TV to promote gigs that's what I'm supposed to do and I don't do it

so my agent was like you'll go on the radio and talk about fucking bird shit and the radio host has to read out your gigs instead

multiple gigs that we need to sell tickets to you want to talk about bird shit and I'm like yeah well I explained to him I said

here's the thing look. If I go on the radio and speak about bard shit, that's literally genuine passion. I actually want to speak about this. That's legitimate passion. I don't like going on the radio. Oh my God. So blind boy, tell us about your upcoming gig in Vicar Street. What are you going to do in Vickr Street? Any surprises? That's not an impression of that DJ Sean Moncrief, who's actually fairly sound. That's not an impression of him. That's just generic radio DJ voice. But, like, I don't like going on to the radio to fucking talk about a gig. I've tried it before.

What's it like in a Blind My Life podcast show? Do you just go up on stage and do something nuts? Is it crazy? Did you ever get nervous? Do you ever get nervous walking out talking to a little of people? And would you not take off the bag? So that's most of, that's going on the radio promoting your gig. Like, I don't want to do that because then I have to lie.

I have to lie and pretend that I enjoy that conversation and that's really difficult. So if my agent is listening, which they are, Mark, it's not that I don't want to promote my gigs. It's, I have extreme difficulty engaging in that type of performative small talk. Like, what am I going to say? Well, you know, I'm going to do. Is that me doing an impression of me? I try to do an impression of me. Well, you know, I'm playing by

And, uh, do you know, it's just going to be a great laugh in Vickers Streets. Just be loads of fun, I'm going to bring out a guest And we'll do a live podcast. That's me doing an impression of me. I'm not going on to the radio. I want to go on the radio and talk about bird shit. And with all due respect to Sean Moncrief, he'd a very eager set of ears. And he willingly let me go on.

on a bird shit rant. I filled his ears with barred shit for, he gave me 20 minutes on news talk. He wasn't even supposed to give me 20 minutes. He gave me 20 minutes on news talk to do an autistic rant about bird shit and biodiversity so fair play to him. Then I forgot I was on the fucking radio and this happened.

To why these starlings are coming back to that specific point, or that specific location, and why is that? Actually, I forgot I was on the radio. there, Sean. Should I be saying pooh-po and state? I know, you've said it about 17 times now

so I think we're... And it's official name, uh, rather than... The Bardshit Birdshed district. Yeah. Goodness me. My laugh is really hoarse there now. Sounds like a

whistling kettle on the roof of a moving ambulance. Blimeboy you said on last week's podcast that your laugh was like a whistling kettle on the roof of a moving ambulance. Rather a reverent description of your laugh. What did you mean by that, blonde boy?

The Doppler effect. My laugh, my laugh there, it went up in Pagos. It sounded like the Doppler effect. That's what I meant by that. What's up a wall am I breaking here? I've got fucking, so actual conversations of me on the radio

with a radio DJ, which I willed into existence by doing a roleplay of me and a radio DJ a couple of weeks ago. But now I'm then, responding to that with a roleplay of me and a radio DJ

but then commenting about that happening it's not breaking the fourth wall it's I've broken the fourth wall and now I'm constructing an

an ironic meta modern partition but my ma my ma's going to be listening to this and she's going to say to me you were smoking cigarettes at electric picnic weren't you

every any time I laugh and if it sounds hoarse she'll get on to me saying you were smoking cigarettes. I wasn't smoking cigarettes at Electric Picnic. I wasn't. But I was, I was speaking to, I'd say I must have spoken to maybe 36 people. Easily, I would have had conversations with 36 people at Electric Picnic backstage. People in the entertainment industry, people that I know performers who haven't seen in a year. So my voice is hoarse from talking and my social battery is

very heavily drained and thank you to everybody who come out to Electric Picnic to see the gig I should have done I did a fucking tiny tent so my gig at Picnic

I wanted to do a little tidy simple gig it was on it half one which is early it was myself and Darrow Brian the comedian

and Ruth Freeman who's been on she was a guest on this podcast before Ruth is a scientist but the gig It was on at 1.30. The tent only held about

6 or 700 people which I thought was grand because I'm like who the fuck's going to get up and come to a gig at 1 o'clock. It'll be fine. We can do the small tent. But then people started sending me videos and there were giant queues for the tent and people couldn't get in to see

the gig so I apologise for that. You know I'm not mad about festivals. I didn't want to be staying late so I took an arty gig but I'll do something different next year in a tent where more people can come in. I really regret taking that. Taking the earlier gig now, I really regret it.

I haven't seen the people who queued in the fucking rain to come along to the gig. I apologise. Also, if you're interested in hearing that, my radio appearance, where I spoke about Bard Shit, just look up

the Sean Moncrief show on News Talks website and I think it's on the Go Loud player as well which is an app and I think they have my interview is there as a little separate segment just type blind by Sean Moncrief show up bird shit that'll give you the results I think this week's podcast is going to be a bit of a phone call because I was at a festival I was working all weekend at electric picnic and also any time I do a fucking festival gig at the weekend. The podcast the week after is usually a bit of a phone call because I'm so

not burnt out but rattled. Disoriented. That's how I feel disoriented, which is, I love that word. Orient comes from the Latin word orions, which means the rising sun, east. So when you're disoriented, you can't find east. And that experience perfectly describes the feeling of nor a divergent burnout for me. Do you know when you're on holidays and you know where your hotel is and after about day three you kind of have a mental picture of the streets around your hotel by about day three of a holiday. You can walk to the bar or the shop without needing to look at the maps on your phone.

You have an idea of, ah, I feel oriented. I know that when I come out the door of this hotel, The shop is in that direction and city centre is over in that direction. You don't really know the streets, but you have this, you have a feeling of north, south, east, west. You just feel it in this new city. And then suddenly you turn a corner wrong or whatever, and boom, you're hit with this sudden sense of a lost,

a lost feeling of confusion. and you don't know what direction your hotel is anymore and you don't know what direction town is you're very confused that's what I feel like that's what I feel like after a good day of speaking to 36 people and if you're like that on holiday

and you don't have your bearings and you try to guess where your hotel is and you walk well you might find yourself lost and even more confused and then you might feel anxious and frightened and unsafe and you'll have different

helping yourself and you don't speak the language. That feeling, that feeling there is what autistic burnout feels like after being overstimulated. And very simple, very simple skills of being an autonomous adult who's able to look after themselves and go to the shop and fucking write shopping lists and figure out what to eat for dinner. That shit becomes difficult for a day or two. So what I do is I mind myself and I mind myself by acceptance, accepting these things and mindfulness, consistent watching my breathing, reminding myself at all times where I am, noticing my feet on the ground, grounding mindfulness. This is where I am.

This is what's happening. I notice the coldness in the air. I notice the darkness of the clouds. I noticed that the starlings are behaving differently. I noticed that the air smells differently. Consistently checking in with every single one of my senses. So that I don't fade away. I reorient myself through the present moment and the here and now.

There were jackhammers outside my window earlier on. And they were making loads of eyes and just workmen doing some work somewhere in the city. and it was really noisy and loud and I was worried I was like fuck it how am I going to record the podcast with jackhammers that's not a pleasant noise at all

and then I noticed there was actually a tiny hole in my window it's a PVC window but it had obviously been forced at some point and there was a tiny little opening where sound was getting in and the reason I noticed the opening was

while I was listening to that jackhammer going fuck it I can't record a podcast with a jackhammer there was a wasp there was a wasp outside the window and I'm up on the like the fourth floor there was a Conti September wasp trying to get in my window

because that's how they conduct themselves at this time of year poor old wasps you see that wasp outside my window who was trying to come in the hole in my window, he was buzzing around outside and he was trying to come in the hole in my window. That wasp, he spent the entire summer, the entire summer, living in a wasp nest. And his job was to feed protein, like bits of meat, fish, whatever the wasp could find.

His job because wasps are decomposers. This wasp's job all summer was to to feed protein to a little larva, a grub in its nest. And when the wasp gives the meat and the protein to this larva, the larva excretes a sweet sugary substance and that's what the wasp eats. But by September, now the larva is gone. The larva that that wasp has been feeding, that larva has grown into an adult wasp and it's after fucking off, it's gone, it's gone from the colony. So now, the poor fucker who was trying to get in the hole in my window

is actually slowly starving to death. That wasp has lost its food source, it's lost its source of sugar specifically because it's spent its life eating this real sweet sugary shit that it gets out of babies that it gives meat to, and now the meat babies are gone. So he was trying to get in my window because I don't know

I'd bananas I'd a bunch of fairly fucking ripe bananas in my office he was outside he could smell him he was trying to get in that little hole all I could hear was the jackhammer outside

going I can't record a podcast with a fucking jackhammer outside what am I going to do what am I going to do I'm going to need to fill that hole that hole in the window that the wasp wants to get in that the jackhammer noise is getting in I'm going to have to fill that hole What am I going to fill that hole with?

And I've been reading about a field of science called biomimetics. It's where you try and find solutions to problems by mimicking the behavior of animals. Like in 1995 there was this professor, Professor Andrew Parker was his name, right? And so this is 1995, about a year after Jurassic Park. And if you remember Jurassic Park, remember it starts with mosquitoes trapped in all. fossilized mosquitoes trapped in amber. So after Jurassic Park, an interest exploded in fossilized amber with insects inside.

So there was this exhibition of amber in a museum. Amber, if you don't know, it's when the sap of a tree fossilizes and sometimes an insect gets trapped inside that sticky sap, but it fossilizes over millions of years. So there was this fucking exhibition of amber in a museum. of Amber in a museum anyway. And this Professor Andrew Parker

went along and he saw he stared at a 45 million year old fly stuck inside Amber. But there was a magnifying glass there in the museum so he could go real, he could hold the magnifying glass up to this fly

this 45 million year old fly that was stuck in the amber. He could hold the magnifying glass up to it and he looked at the fly's eyes he saw like a really unusual structure in the fly's eyes like up close there was these really fine ridges and groves and Professor Parker started to wonder but they must be there for a reason so then he he built a model of the fly's eyes in a laboratory and shunned

light into the model and found that the ridges on a fly's eyes encourage light to pass through it rather than reflect and it's a very specific specific adaptation that flies have to soak light up that comes in from all various angles because it allows the fly to then see in the dark and this is such an efficient adaptation that the flies have that they've had it for 45 million fucking years and nature hasn't even come in and changed it that's how good it is. The point is that little observation about the fly's eyes and building the model and understanding how the fly's eye responds to light, that then revolutionized solar panels. That made solar panels a lot more powerful than they had been beforehand. And that's biomimetics. Where you

look at an animal or processes in nature to try and solve problems. So I'm back in my office and there's that tiny little hole in my window and I can hear the jackhammer's outside and the wasp he's acting like a prick doing September wasp stuff. I've spoken about September wasps. They're aggressive. They're not aggressive. It's just they're starving. They're starving to death. They've lost their food source.

And humans, we just tend to have sugar in the form of drinks or perfumes. and they're just, please, can I eat? That's what they're doing, okay? But the wasps outside the window. So I'm like, how am I going to fill that hole? How will I fill that hole? And then I started thinking, what would a wasp do? Paper, paper.

Why can't I fill that hole? Like a wasp would fill that hole. Now, ironically, my preamp that I have here, it has a limiter on it and a gate on it. And this is the piece of equipment that's supposed to drown out we'll say the noise of a distant jackhammer right that's what this piece of equipment does

you might even notice it now it's raining on my roof and every time I speak you probably hear a little crispy crystally noise that's the rain and then it cuts the sound out when I'm not talking so I reached for the manual the paper A4 manual of my pream was on my desk and I ripped open I ripped off a page from this manual and started

chewing it proper chewing this fucking paper like a wasp like a like wasps wasps decompose old wood they go to old wood they bite it they chew it and they make that into fucking paper and that's how they build their nests I was doing this with the the manual the manual the manual for my pre-amp and I chewed a lot of paper and stuck it into the hole like a wasps nest really jammed it in there and it worked the wasps couldn't get in and I couldn't hear the noise the fucking jackhammer it's raining heavily now let a little bit little bit of the rain sound in the point I'm trying to make is the other thing I have to be

mindful of when it comes to experiencing a bit of burnout or over-stimulation or low social battery is I can have a propensity towards eccentric behavior during these times because what I just described to you there

is fucking mad. I'm sorry sir, what are you doing? Oh, what am I doing? Oh, I'm just chewing up this manual here. I'm just chewing up this manual here because there's a hole in the window. Why are you doing that? Well that's what wasps do. Oh yeah.

Why are you doing what a wasp does? Because there's a wasp trying to get in. I'm copying the wasps. This is how they build nests. So I'm chewing this manual. Is that okay? No. No, that's odd. That's not okay at all.

That's socially unacceptable. There's a better solution. There's better solutions. Alright? I could have bought some blue tack. I didn't have to chew my... A manual and... And try and make a wasps nest plug out of it.

If someone had seen that, they'd laugh at me, I'd be a subject of ridicule, I'd be a subject of shame, it would increase my social anxiety, I'd get a nickname, they'd call me the wasp, they would, they'd call you the wasp, if you did that, there was no one around to see it, but I was around to see it, and I found myself, shaming myself, I found myself, shame in myself, I found myself, I found myself, I found myself, being a bit hard on myself why can't you be normal why the fuck can't you be in normal why'd you have to do that could you what is wrong with you what's wrong with you

that you couldn't stop yourself and go just cause wasps make paper nests doesn't mean that it's a good idea for you to try and eat an A4 sheet of paper and make a wasps nest

okay and I was shaming myself I was shaming myself for every time before that I've done something like that and experienced being laughed at being laughed that

that was most of my time in school alright being pointed at and laughed that because you've done something mad I'm aware that it's funny I know it's funny I'm telling you about it on my podcast I can see that that is

humorous and a good story but I also don't like it I don't like it because it's not that it's not a choice but when I have when I experience burnout the part of my brain that should step in and go, no, no, that's ridiculous.

Come on, be serious. You're not chewing paper. Be serious. That bit's gone. That bit's gone. And the curiosity is then untethered. Untethered curiosity. And then the end result is doing something eccentric.

And then when you do something eccentric that invites social rejection and ridicule and then shame. And in this case, I socially rejected and ridiculed myself. and then experience shame. Excentricity is what happens when neurodivergent people are trying to meet their needs. So what I'm working on is acceptance. Accepting these things about myself. It's not bad, it's not mean, doesn't hurt anyone.

It's not intended to hurt anybody. The only victim is me looking silly, that's it. So learning to accept these things about myself. I had a great, great granite whose nickname was the horse. Her real name was Magine, which it's Margaret. It's Margaret, but it's if your mother is also called Margaret, you were called Magine. And she's like, great, great grand-aunt or possibly just distant cousin on my ma's side. And the story of why she was called the horse was,

this would have been around probably 1910 so Magine she was a widow her husband had died for whatever reason she was a youngish widow

and she had a little son who was a teenager now Magine was from I think like rural tipperary quite poor this is 19 10 so like she'd literally grown up in a stone hut with a thatched roof, she grew up in mud.

Because she was a widow, because she had a teenage son, she had to earn money, she had to earn money. And this wasn't possible in Ireland. So Magine and her son, she emigrated to Manchester. She went to Manchester around 1910, 1911. to go and work as a maid, to work as a maid in a wealthy person's house in Manchester. Now, this would have been difficult because Magine was a widow. She'd have been in her 30s and then her son. Let's just call him Patrick.

He's about 13. So she's like, I'm qualified in nothing. I'm qualified to be a maid. I know that Irish women can get jobs as maids, but I'm going to have to get a job in a house that will all sort of. give a job to my son so that the two of us can live in this house

so she goes to a part of Manchester called Victoria Park it was posh big Victorian houses Georgian houses and she goes knocking door to door with her son

you know I'm look I'm a woman from Ireland I've got a son I'll work hard do you need a maid she goes door to door until eventually One house is like, yeah, we need a, we actually really need help. We really need help and we'll take your son as well, no problem.

We actually need a young fella to work out in the stables. So this house was so big that it had a stables at the back for the horses. So Magine is thrilled. Not only does she have work in this big fancy house as a maid, but she's living with her son. her 13 year old son in the servants quarters and now both of them are living together she has work

he has work like he's 14 he's not in fucking school not an Irish kid in 1910 he's not in school or 1911 whatever it was so she begins her work anyway and

they give her a bucket and a pail and the woman of the house says to Magin I want you to wash up the floors downstairs and upstairs. So Magine takes the bucket and pail and goes, all right, fair enough, okay. So she washes the floors on the first floor and then when she's finished she's like, right, I gotta do the second floor now.

So in the house is a big huge staircase leading up to the second floor and Magine walks over with her bucket and pail to the staircase and then it hits her. she grew up in rural tipperary in like effectively a mud hut like extreme poverty of rural tipperary and she'd never seen a staircase she'd never seen a person walking up a staircase she'd seen people using ladders but she'd never been confronted with a fucking a staircase in a two-story house because this is 1910

Tipperary now all of a sudden she's in Manchester she'd never walked up a flight of fucking stairs ever adult woman so she gets the bucket impale and she goes down on all fours

and she climbs up the staircase on all fours really slowly because she's trying to figure it out as she goes along so she's climbing up the stairs real slowly and as she does that the fella who owns the house the barrister or whatever he was

he walks in the door and looks and starts roaring laughing at her roar and laughing at the Irish one the maid who's climbing up the stairs on all fours and he gets his wife in and he gets his kids in and they're all roaring laughing because she's like a horse

she's like a horse and then they name her the horse Magine the horse who climbs up the stairs on all fours and Magine is terrified now

Magine is like she feels awful she's embarrassed and as far as she's concerned she's going to lose her job she's now she thought she had it fucking sorted

herself and her little son Patrick have got jobs in this house in Manchester and now it's all going to be gone because she fucked up she climbed up the stairs on all fours and now they're calling her the horse

but she didn't lose her job and it turns out that the family they were kind of sound they started to like Magine and her son Patrick and Patrick was working out the back

in the stables cleaning out the stables and months passed and they had a life for themselves now they had a life for themselves living and working in this big Victorian house in a posh part of Manchester a roof over their heads then Christmas time comes

and the barrister fellow who owns the house now he might have been a bit of a prick because whenever anyone would visit he would say get the horse where's the horse referring to Magine and he'd bring Magine down and just every visitor that came he'd say

do you know this woman tried to climb up the fucking stairs on all fours like a horse Did you know that? Fucking Irish And she had to put up with it But one Christmas anyway The man of the house Actually buys young Patrick

A horse Bies young Patrick a horse So that he can learn to ride And young Patrick is thrilled He's like 15 now Fucking thrilled My God a horse for Christmas I'm gonna learn to ride

I get to ride the horse Around Manchester Now unfortunately the barrister who owns the house He named the horse Magine So now Patrick he does have a horse But he has to ride a horse that's named after his ma Because his ma tried to climb a flight of stairs on all fours But still they're happy

It's better than being stuck back in fucking tip In 1910 in poverty As a widow As a widow who can't work back in Ireland more months pass and now Patrick on his time off gets the practice on Maggieine the horse

every single day and he gets good at riding and he has the reins and the fucking barrister got him proper horse clothes I don't know what they're called riding chaps I don't know

it's 1910 in Manchester long story short Patrick took the horse out onto an area that was very heavily cobbled the horse fell Patrick fell as well and then Magine the horse fell on Patrick's leg

and broke it so badly and irreparably that Patrick had to have his leg amputated he's got one leg now and sure now of course Magine is fucking heartbroken she's gone from poverty she's already devastated because her poor little son lost his father at a young age

she was so happy that they managed to come to Manchester to get a life that he was developing into a young man riding a horse he might have a fucking shot he might have a chance and now he's got one fucking leg a leg amputated and her heart is absolutely broken just the sheer bad luck of it all and worst of all Patrick couldn't work anymore

he couldn't do the bits and pieces that he was doing out in the stables he couldn't clean up he couldn't lift things he wasn't any use as a worker anymore so Magine was terrified oh my god are we are they going to kick us out now Patrick can't work what's the point

but luckily The barrister, the family, they seemed to be kind people. They were kind people and they weren't going to kick Magine and her son out on the street and fire him because of something as unfortunate as the young fella losing his leg. So Magine and Patrick got to stay in the house. Magine still worked and Patrick got room and bored and nothing was asked of him. And even better than that, the barrister was like, well, let's try and get this young man in education. because he quit school very very young back in Ireland so he hired a private tutor who

would come every day and help Patrick to read and write so that eventually he could go to school but at his own age so bad luck he's after losing a leg that's terrible but now at least he's receiving an education now the luck is coming up again and another year passes and it must have been 1915 16 because World War I is kicked off. And this thing comes in called the National Registration Act where basically every man of fighting age in Britain had to register for conscription to be sent to the fucking trenches of World War I.

Now Patrick at this point, he's 1516. But the thing is, during World War I, Irish people were not conscripted because of the fucking shit kicking off back in Ireland. Like when Britain introduced conscription in England, Scotland and Wales, three months after that, the 1916 rising happens in Ireland. Like shit is really kicking off. So the Brits didn't want to fucking poke that hornet's nest. So Irish people were not conscripted to World War I.

So Maggie and Patrick are in Manchester in this big fancy house and they're not really thinking about it they're going I'm Irish, Irish people don't get conscripted but because the barrister because the man of the house had begun

steps for Patrick to be educated and to eventually join school that put Patrick into the system and a letter comes in the door with Patrick's name on it basically saying report for training, you're shipping off, you're being sent to fight for your country in World War 1, you're going to go die in the Sam. And Magine's heart is ripped out of her chest again.

They're going to take her son, they're going to take her little son away. Things were looking up. She was happy. She thought there was a future. So there's about a week of absolute misery and pain. And then the day comes where Patrick has to go to the recruit. recruiting office, basically to be sent away for training. And they knew. They knew no one comes back. Being sent to the front fucking lines as cannon fodder. No one's coming back. So when they go to the recruiting office, he's got his papers. Your man calls up Patrick Clancy. His name wasn't Clancy. Let's say Clancy for the crack. Patrick Clancy. Any Patrick Clancy here? And Magine is there and Patrick is there

and Patrick hobbles up to the army officer in his crutches and the army officer looks at him and says oh I'm sorry you shouldn't have gotten this letter we can't use anybody

with one leg bye bye and they went home happy and Magine got to live the rest of her life living in that house they were very very kind to her

and then they took her in as almost a family remember? And Patrick then went on. I think he became a solicitor. He became a one-legged solicitor over in Manchester. He was like a second or third cousin of mine. His name wasn't Patrick. I can't remember his fucking name. This is a story I heard. But herd name was definitely Magine. And she was called the horse. Magine the horse. Because she climbed up the stairs on all fours. Why am I telling you that story? Because... My ma's been telling me that story since I'm a little kid and every time she's been telling me the story I'd say to myself,

what if she wanted to be a horse? What if that was Magine's choice? What if it wasn't? Oh, the poor woman, the poor woman had never seen a set of stairs. No. What if Maggiene wanted to be a fucking horse? What if she knew how to climb stairs? But for whatever reason she said, I wonder what it's like to climb this stairs.

Like a horse would climb it in all fours and then she got caught and was laughed at. We'll never know And in 200 years Is one of my descendants Gonna be talking about Oh, I'd a relative Your poor old Poor Grand Uncle had a podcast

And he used to chew paper like a wasp He'd plug holes in windows The wasp they used to call him The Wasp, they'd laugh at him in the office I suppose I'm telling you that story Because it's a wonderful story about accepting About accepting About accepting

That life is full of suffering that life is suffering. Maggie, Magine and Patrick had a lot of suffering, a lot of terrible things happened. But at the end of the day, she coped with everything along the way

and she responded to everything proactively. Despite the misery, she got to live to be a ripe old age with a roof over her head and her son became a one-legged solicitor in Manchester. We can't try to create certainty. You can't.

can't create certainty. Life is a roller coaster, you just got to ride it, to quote the great Ronan Keating. And I find that this time of year is wonderful for acceptance. Because it's horrible outside. It's grey and bleak and the leaves are about the fall off trees and the starlings are going to disappear and everything's going to become a strange shitty shade of navy. it's going to get cold it'll be getting dark

and half o'er in the evening the bird shit will be replaced by slippy leaves that have that strange cheesy tang as the decay, the wasps are going to die the kylak is coming the goddess of winter is going to strip the trees bare

your mental health is going to suffer because it's going to get a bit bleak isn't it? It's tough staying positive and in joy in life when winter is creeping upon us

when you have like what we have right now those first few little signs of that chill in the air no more t-shirts I've to start thinking about gloves on my bicycle now I knew that today by the pain in my knuckles but I'm not going to resist any of it I can't change any of this I'm going to accept it and when you accept winter

and the coming of winter and you accept the darkening evenings when you accept them and just try to notice them the beauty will unfurl in front you like a carpet scratching of Jack Russell's warmy rectum

autumn and winter are beautiful because summer and spring wouldn't exist without them they're all part of the same cycle Jack Russell isn't going to jump up on your lap looking for rubs unless his arse is scratched first okay let's have an ocarina pause I don't have my ocarina

let's not get into that I've got an empty yogurt pot well not yogurt specifically Kavargh which is it's marketed as a yogurt but technically it's the type of soft cheese I quite enjoy it as a snack

so yeah let's crinkle a bit of tinfoil off the top of some Kavarg and you'll hear adverts for shit. That was the crinkily cavarred pause. Support for this podcast comes from you, the listener, via the Patreon page. Patreon.com forward slash the blindboy podcast.

If you enjoy this podcast, if it brings you mirth, merriment, entertainment, distraction, whatever it does, please consider supporting this podcast directly. This is my full-time job. This is how I earn a living. This is how I rent out my office.

It's how I pay my bills. This podcast is possible because it's listener funded. Because it's listener funded, that's why I show up each week. Even when I've been at a festival and haven't had much time to research. And when I'm burnt out, there will be a podcast each fucking week unless I fall off a horse and have my leg crushed. I'm unbelievably grateful and every single day I reflect on gratitude

I reflect on that gratitude of how fortunate I am that I get to have this as my fucking job because I love doing it I adore it and that's why I've been doing it for eight years this is only possible because of patrons

so patreon.com forward slash the blind by podcast all I'm looking for is the price of a pint or a cup of coffee once a month That's it. And if you can't afford this, don't worry about it. You listen for free. Listen for free because the person who's paying is paying for you to listen for free. Everybody gets the exact same podcast. I get to earn a living. If you are signing up for Patreon, don't do it on the iPhone app if you're new because Apple will take 30% do it on desktop or on a browser on your

phone. And also don't sign up as a free member. Sign up using money if that's okay because When you sign up as a free member, Patreon just gets your data. You don't get anything from that. Offcoming gigs in a couple of weeks. We've got Vickr Street, which is a Tuesday night gig. On the 23rd of September, that's only a few weeks away. Vickr Street is very nearly sold out. We're literally down to maybe the last 30 tickets.

So if you're thinking about coming to the Vicar Street gig, which is a choose and don't be put off by it being a Tuesday night gig I deliberately pick I deliberately pick the nights that nobody else wants deliberately I'm actually

I'm one of the few acts that can sell out Vicker Street on a Tuesday night because a lot of other acts if they're putting their gigs on it's you want to have a night out you want to have a few fucking drinks you might want to go mad

whereas with my podcast I put it on on a Tuesday night because you're not going to go mad at my podcast. This is like going to the cinema or going to see a play. You can go to my podcast in Vickers Street on a Tuesday and you'll be home in bed and ready for work the next day. And you won't even want to have a fucking pint. It's an evening of relaxation and conversation

and that's why I put my Vicar Streets on on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. And then on the 27th, which is a Saturday, Derry. I cannot wait to go up to dairy I haven't been in dairy in about two years I'm in the Millennium Theatre that's a Saturday night gig so you might have one or two

points but not so many points that you start shouting and running the gig but you might have one or two points and I can't wait to come up to dairy and if you have suggestions for guests for dairy please give me a shout and Blind by Ball Club on Instagram just send me a DM

please who are the interesting people to speak to up in Derry? Over the coming weeks I'm going to be announcing some new international tours which I'm very excited about so I can't wait to tell you about that this weekend I'm off to Garnish Island down in Cork I'm doing a tiny little gig very small gig down there that's sold out it's sold out in about five minutes but I can't wait to go down to Garnish Island

for the island itself which is aesthetically beautiful and also there's a national park nearby with some proper ancient Irish broadly forest I believe so I'm going to headbut that nature and be very mindful and I'm going to recharge my social battery down in Garnish Island all right rubber dog embrace the beauty of early September don't turn away from the decay accept the suffering that exists suffering is part of being alive accept it

and don't try to create certainty I've created I create huge amounts of pain for myself by trying to create certainty accept uncertainty uncertainty is reality and when I mean creating certainty you've got a job interview coming up

you're terrified so you ruminate over and over about this is going to go so terribly I'm going to fuck this up so bad oh my God I shouldn't even show up I'm going to fuck this up that's creating certainty

because the uncertainty is so uncomfortable to sit with the uncertainty of I don't know how this job interview is going to go what I do know is I can try my best. That's that I know. I think I can control that. I'm going to try my best, but I can't

really control the outcome of this thing. It's very uncertain. I think I'll worry about it. I think I'll worry about it and think about all the ways that it's going to go wrong. That's creating certainty there because uncertainty is uncomfortable. You broke up with your boyfriend or your girlfriend and now you're spending all your time searching their fucking Instagram page to see if they might have moved on to a new romantic partner. That's creating certainty. You're creating certainty there. You're trying to manufacture certainty

because the uncertainty of that is very painful, very difficult to sit with uncertainty. Constantly seeking reassurance from other people. Do my clothes look okay? Do you think this person is mad at me? I didn't say anything offensive at that party, did I? Creating certainty. We have to accept uncertainty.

accept an embrace it, let it wash over you, like the suds in a bat. All right, dog bless. A Ayeshaar, ... ... ... ...

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