Blindboy Boatclub, writer and podcaster, is a non-believer. He doesn’t believe in any god or religion. And yet, in this documentary he decides to explore the origins and evolution of early Irish Christianity, hermits, saints and monasteries, to try and find out who they were, what motivated them and what did they do?
Blindboy, with input from experts, interrogates our early medieval history. The Land of Slaves and Scholars lays bare the treasures of Ireland for all to see, from ancient stone circles to the Skellig Islands and back. Guided by a soundtrack composed by Blindboy himself, this documentary asks: What did Irish Christian missionaries, hermits, and monasteries contribute to the Irish writing tradition, a question Blindboy is particularly interested in.
Dr Curley, from Taughmaconnell in south Roscommon is a graduate of the University of Galway, with a BA in History, MA in Medieval Studies, PDip in Education and a PhD in Archaeology, and is an expert on the archaelogy and heritage of his native county Roscommon.
The ancient site of Rathcroghan, Roscommon, which was once the royal site for Connacht and the West of Ireland is one of the sites explored in the documentary, and Dr Daniel Curley explains its significance.
Dr Daniel Curley comments on Rathcroghan in the documentary: “It’s the ancient royal site for the West of Ireland. This is not a place that held a major population. I like to refer to it as an empty capital, that would have boomed for particular points in the calendar year…They’re trading here, they’re exchanging gifts, but they’re also performing entertainments, feasting, marrying off branches of family, there’s a burials of dead… It’s all agricultural, and you’re basing it on the seasonal changes – Imbolg, Bealtaine, Lúnasa and then Samhain.”
Among many other questions raised on our ancient past in the documentary, Blindboy seeks to find out who these festivalgoers Daniel discusses were worshipping before Christ.
The documentary was filmed throughout Ireland from Nendrum Monastery on the shores of Strangford Lough to the Skelligs off the coast of Kerry. It visits sites of worship as diverse as the cave in Roscommon that Halloween emerged from, to the major monasteries that made Ireland a cultural power in the middle ages, talking to historians, storytellers, psychologists and calligraphers.
