Soda Jerk

The 'Soda Jerk' episode of 'The Blindboy Podcast' opens with an advertisement for Irish true crime documentaries, followed by a whimsically surreal piece of short prose submitted by actor Aidan Gillen. The narrative then transitions to Blindboy's reflections on music genres and how he romanticizes past cultural eras, particularly the 70s disco and early 90s rave scenes. He shares a conversation with a friend who was a DJ in the 90s rave scene in Ireland, expecting tales of unity and ecstasy but instead learns about the overwhelming presence of chicken burgers and curry sauce at these events. This culinary detail leads to a discovery about a peculiar Irish law that required nightclubs to serve a 'substantial meal' to patrons, which inadvertently created a unique rave culture inundated with mandatory, often unwanted, food due to the prevalent use of ecstasy.

Blindboy delves into the historical context of this law, tracing its roots back to the 1890s in New York with the 'Raines Law' and the 'Raines sandwich.' This law, aimed at curbing alcohol consumption among the Irish immigrant population, required bars to serve food with drinks. Bar owners circumvented this by offering inedible or reusable sandwiches, facilitating the continued sale of alcohol. Blindboy draws parallels between the Raines sandwich and the mandatory rave food in Ireland, pointing to a larger cultural and legislative distrust of the Irish people's relationship with alcohol. He notes that this distrust is both a result of external prejudice and internalized postcolonial attitudes.

The episode then shifts to the temperance movement in New York, which opposed alcohol consumption and frequented soda fountains as an alternative. These establishments, often located within pharmacies, served carbonated beverages that were initially believed to have medicinal properties. However, many of these 'medicinal' drinks contained substances like cocaine and heroin, unbeknownst to the temperance advocates. Blindboy explores the irony of temperance supporters consuming these drug-laden drinks while condemning the Irish for their alcohol use. He also highlights the role of Irish labor in inadvertently facilitating the soda fountain boom by building Saint Patrick's Cathedral, which led to an excess of cheap marble used to carbonate water.