‘Genuinely special' for Blindboy to be nominated alongside Louis Theroux

Irish Examiner

6 days ago

Blindboy Boatclub has said it is 'genuinely special' to be longlisted alongside Louis Theroux for his documentary on early Irish Christianity.
The author and podcaster has been longlisted for this year's Grierson British Documentary Awards as Best Documentary Presenter for his RTÉ documentary.
In the documentary, Blindboy: The Lands of Slaves and Scholars, the Limerick native offers a fresh perspective on the legacy of early Irish Christianity, with input from local experts and historians.
Blindboy told the Irish Examiner: 'It's nice to get a nomination from the Brits, particularly for an Irish RTÉ documentary. Being recognised alongside someone like Louis Theroux—one of the finest documentary makers in the world and someone I grew up watching—is genuinely special.'
Despite his atheism, Blindboy was left surprised by some of the facts he learned – including how the Irish invented 'spaces between words' in the 7th century.
'Before this, Latin script was written in scriptio continua, no spaces between words. Very difficult to read. When Irish monks added spaces, they introduced a lyricism and musicality to the page which laid the foundations for literary expression,' he said.
In Blindboy's eyes, it was a sophisticated way to carry the musicality of Irish storytelling into writing.
'Most beautifully, even though this was 1,500 years ago, it fits perfectly within the Irish modernist writing tradition, which is the one that we are world famous for. It's pure Samuel Beckett, he had this thing called Minimalist Maximalism, where the absence of language or the use of silence becomes part of the message.
"He wrote a short story called Ping, which limited itself to the use of 700 words. What did we bring to writing? Nothing, a space, a pause, a silence. By adding nothing, we created everything.'
As there was a 'bigger budget', Blindboy said he got to hire researchers for his documentary – not what he is used to when working on his own podcast.
'I also have a co-writer, James Cotter, whom I have been writing with since 2010, we've written 11 documentaries together. This is a much more collaborative process than my podcast,' he said.
As the Limerick man has 'no shortage of ideas', more documentaries can be expected from him in the future.
'My podcast is full of thesis questions that I'd like to explore further,' he teased.
Earlier this year, he was nominated at Ireland's Royal Television Society for the TV adaptation of one of his short stories, Did you read about Erskine Fogarty?.
Produced by Connla's Well, the adaptation starred Robbie Sheehan and filmed on the streets of Limerick.