"Well, my name is Brinsley McNamara and welcome to Weird Ireland." These words will be familiar to anyone who's followed the popular Weird Ireland account on Instagram.

Brinsley – not his real name – has a book out (called Weird Ireland, naturally) and he joined Brendan Courtney – sitting in for Oliver Callan – for a chat.

The Weird Ireland account was only set up last January and it features Brinsley visiting odd and unusual historical places around the country. Brinsley McNamara is actually the pseudonym of another writer, so we have the unusual situation of two different writers using the same pen name:

"John Weldon was his real name. He was an author from Delvin in Co Westmeath. He wrote a book called The Valley of the Squinting Windows. He died in 1961, he’s dead a long time and a playwright as well, but his most famous work is The Valley of the Squinting Windows, which ended up being a controversial book which, around its release, was actually burned on a bonfire in Delvin."

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This is the sort of unusual historical nugget that Weird Ireland gets into. But Brinsley himself, although he narrates the videos, beginning with his catchphrase, doesn’t appear in them. He tells Brendan that not appearing in his videos – along with not revealing his real name – is because he’s naturally quite shy:

"I was kind of afraid to put myself out there, really. But I think it worked out really well."

Brendan is very taken with the book, which he says is full of historical events and information. Has, he wonders, Brinsley always been interested in history? Sure has, is the answer:

"Do you remember the Horrible History magazines, by any chance? I was big into, huge, obsessed with those when I was little. And before that, I was very into history. So, long time. More than 20 years"

The Weird Ireland social media account grew out of a previous account called Weird Westmeath (this Brinsley, just like the Brinsley before him is from Westmeath) and featured him doing much the same thing as he does now, except confined to his native county.

"See, the thing is, going around adventuring, looking at old places, I was doing that anyway, whether I was putting it on social media or not. So, it was just putting it on there. I thought it’d be fun; I thought it’d be interesting."

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At the time too, he wanted to shine a spotlight on Westmeath which he believes doesn’t get enough traction. Weird Ireland was, he says, a natural progression after three years of Weird Westmeath. And the numbers seem to back up his decision to go nationwide – 300,000 followers on Instagram and 75,000 on TikTok.

But what about the new book? Who is that for? Brinsley says that it’s for people from Ireland who want to connect more with the country and it’s also for people from outside of Ireland who want to connect with our little green isle.

"Anyone that wants to connect with the country and see places that are less well-known, or even lesser-known facets of the culture of the country, you know? Whether it be the Wren Boys or whether it be Wibbly Wobbly Wonders or that kind of thing."

Brinsley posted a video of milk being dispensed from the soft drinks dispenser in Supermac’s in Co Louth and it got 3.2 million views. What’s that about? Even Brinsley isn’t sure:

"I don’t know. People like seeing food on things, people like seeing Supermac’s, you know, fast food things. It’s a very short video, snappy video."

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Also it’s milk being dispensed by the soft drinks machine in a fast-food outlet in Co Louth. Where would you get it but in Ireland?

You can hear Brendan’s full chat with Brinsley McNamara by clicking above.

Weird Ireland – An Unofficial Guide to the Island by Brinsley McNamara is published by Hachette Ireland.