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Blindboy Boatclub on fear, failure and fame: ‘In England, they don’t give a f*** who The Rubberbandits are’

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Blindboy Boatclub on fear, failure and fame: ‘In England, they don’t give a f*** who The Rubberbandits are’

The Limerick podcaster and author talks about the panic attacks and anxiety that plagued him for years, failing his Leaving Cert, how a book review gave him a year’s worth of writer’s block and why he won’t be ditching the plastic bag anytime soon

Blindboy Boatclub pictured at The People’s Museum of Limerick. Photo: Don Moloney

There’s being able to talk for Ireland, and then there’s this. In the course of a 90-minute conversation with Blindboy Boatclub, talk oscillates between a number of diverse topics, one more esoteric than the last: Brendan Behan, the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Celtic mythology, giant spiders, Tony Blair, colonialism, the real Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe, musician Steve Albini. Flann O’Brien, naturally, comes up a bit. On all of them, Blindboy speaks with the enthusiasm of a zealot. In the best way possible, it’s all very “o captain, my captain”, and I find myself sprinting to keep up.

Ironic, really, given his experiences with teachers during his own education. “Ten years ago, I went to our 10-year [reunion],” he recalls. “It would have been around the time of The Rubberbandits. This one teacher had forgotten he’d expelled me and came up to me and said, ‘Can I have your autograph to prove to my wife that I know you?’”

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