Blindboy's 'Land of Slaves and Scholars' — history doesn't have to be dull

Now that’s how you tell a story.

Blindboy mightn’t be for everybody. But this documentary about pre-historic Ireland up to the early Middle Ages is a treat.

I laughed a bit, I learned a lot and it left me wanting more.

In case you haven’t heard, Blindboy Boatclub is one of a kind — a musician, author and hugely successful podcaster from Limerick who likes to play around with art forms.

So a few seconds into a scene depicting people in early Christian Ireland, Blindboy tells us this isn’t real, these people are actors, at which point some of them take out their phones and start taking selfies. 

It’s a wake-up call to anyone who thinks this is another documentary about the lovely life we had here in Ireland before the Brits came along and ruined everything.

There is a proper mix of light and heavy material. 

So before delving into a Marxist analysis of the monasteries in early Christian Ireland, Blindboy announces he is going to show us a drone shot of a peaceful lake.

This is one of many eye-candy shots of Ireland, but they are part of the story here, rather than a lure for American tourists.

The bit of Marxism addresses the use of slaves in the monastic system, and how these institutions preserved the inequality in pre-Christian Ireland. 

This could have been dull and worthy, but Blindboy and team make it interesting, using a variety of talking head experts shot in arresting outdoor locations. 

They dismantle the Sesame Street version of Irish history, explaining that life in feudal Ireland wasn’t up to much if you were a woman or a slave.

But there was much more to this than a dig at the monks. Using experts in calligraphy, folklore and psychiatry, Blindboy whisks up the story of Irish story-telling, crediting the monks for turning writing into a visual art-form, not to mention introducing spaces between words. 

Before that, he says, space-free writing was ‘like a text from my ma.’

Anyone familiar with his podcast knows that Blindboy views Ireland through a post-colonial lens. 

Before watching this, I thought it was going to be a lament for old Ireland, a utopia ruined by the neighbours from hell. I shouldn’t have worried.

There is a message here, but it’s this — be careful about any story that makes you feel too good about yourself and your country. 

History is messy and no one has the monopoly on dodgy doings.

The other, more important message, is this — history documentaries don’t have to be dull.