Topographia Hibernica: famous podcaster Blindboy comes to Warwick

Blindboy, the infamously faceless face of the Blindboy Podcast, recently paid a visit to the Warwick Arts Centre as a part of his tour of the UK to promote his most recent book Topographia Hibernica: an offering of short stories named after infamous account of Ireland’s landscape and its people written shortly after the Norman invasion. The text of the book’s namesake, written by Gerald of Wales in 1188, questionable in method, positionality, and findings, featured rather unkind observations of the Irish character and customs like, “this people are not tenderly nursed from their birth, as others are; for besides the rude fare they receive from their parents, which is only just sufficient for their sustenance, as to the rest, almost all is left to nature” and “although they are richly endowed with the gifts of nature, their want of civilisation, shown both in their dress and mental culture makes them a barbarous people”.  

Blindboy’s version is a far more honest  (often brutally so) telling of human nature, in all its grit and grandeur

Reversing the narrative, Blindboy’s version is a far more honest  (often brutally so) telling of human nature, in all its grit and grandeur, this time written by one such ‘barbarous’ Irish man. Although perhaps living up to Gerald’s telling of the Irish and their uncivilised dress, Blindboy attends all such book-promoting engagements with a headpiece one could only describe as a thin white plastic shopping bag over his head (with the necessary modifications made for survival). 

The actual book, although very appealing to me in premise, was quite hard to stomach. Perhaps because I am a sensitive soul or just because the topics they touch upon: the loss of self brought on by dementia, animal cruelty, and the selfish motives that often underlie a selfless act– to mention just a few, are just generally hard to digest. That being said, the raw suffering is cut with comedy, and when read live to an enraptured audience in Blindboy’s deceptively jovial Irish accent, the stories feel more palatable and the pain they describe almost comical. With lines like, “I wanted him to see a good man. A caring man. A man who took time out of his evening, to stop and rescue a misfortunate abused donkey”, who could resist. All things considered, maybe I’ll give it another go. 

“We need to know more about who we are and where we came from, that is what binds us”- Carl Chinn

The book, however, formed only a small part of everything that happened that evening, with Blindboy bringing on his close friend and the famous Brummie historian, Carl Chinn MBE DL. True perhaps to the oral tradition of stories passed down that the book seeks to emulate, so too the evening followed the theme of histories passed down in conversation, as we were treated to an undulating discussion spanning unfortunate drunk tweets looking for hash at 8am to the disconnect many experience from their community and its history. A particularly interesting part of the conversation came about when discussing exactly this alienation from our own histories, and the dire failures of the UK curriculum to give students an understanding of their place in history. 

Possessing such knowledge about your own roots comes with certain disadvantages, including the inability to enjoy Peaky Blinders

Why on earth would history lessons start with ancient Egypt when students barely know the history of their own grandparents, great grandparents and so on.  As Chinn aptly pointed out: “We need to know more about who we are and where we came from; that is what binds us”. Instead of bringing history alive, showing students the connection between their lives and the lives of those before them, they are taught the safer, more innate, and less clearly politically charged histories of the Romans, Aztecs, and Victorians before their own. The consequence being that students aren’t given a real sense of the value of history to their own lives and are instead gifted the displacement that comes with knowing nothing about your roots, where you come from, and what it is worth.  

However, Chinn did make it clear that possessing such knowledge about your own roots comes with certain disadvantages, including the inability to enjoy Peaky Blinders. He warned the audience to “never watch a historical drama with someone that studies that history” as he went on debunking almost every aspect of the wildly popular show. Even the flat caps armed with razor blades apar to be a myth, as first of all the gang preferred a bowler hat called the billycock, and secondly the limp flat cap would simply not be fit for concealing a razor blade. Then again, it is pretty hard to imagine the bowler hat enjoying the same revival that the flat cap has following the show, so perhaps the creators made a wise choice. However, the glorification of a historically inaccurate hat seems a far less insidious problem than the glorification of gangs that the show cultivated. As the two hosts discussed, the reality of the peaky blinders was of petty thugs who terrorised the working-class people they lived amongst. 

We each have a responsibility as the voices which represent where we come from and an ability to change things from within

The most valuable lesson I took from the event, again in the spirit of Blindboy’s book, is that the subjects of analysis, the observed people, are the ones best suited to tell their own story. The ability to allow our class and apparent place in society to hold us back can be, and was, conquered by people like Chinn, who forced himself to break out of his fear of not belonging in the world of academics, to tell the story of his community rather than let it be told by those who knew so little of it first-hand. We each have a responsibility as the voices which represent where we come from and an ability to change things from within. All in all, a fantastic event made so by the two fantastic people we had the pleasure of listening to.