The Toxic Travel Guide: Ireland as You’ve Never Seen It Before

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Did you know that there's no crime in Stoneybatter, because every time a fixie gets stolen they just say it happened in Cabra? He may already have a book published, but the third year Maynooth student says he has no plans to stop producing online content anytime soon. I started listening to all these meditation gurus and I was like, 'Are any of them actually just horrible people, you know?' Because who talks like that? But people are just so kind, and so friendly. And it's such an honour to be able to give people a laugh. Not everyone, but like some people.

You know, he really, really encouraged me to continue writing. I didn't have him in fifth and sixth year, but I used to just get him in between classes and go, 'Here, look at this.' The Wonder: Westmeath actress Niamh Algar on film about a feverishly religious, post-Famine IrelandThat stuff can be just as interesting and just as beautiful as the other stuff. So I'm trying to kind of give a fair hearing to everything, if that makes any sense. Like Tesco trollies in the Liffey."

But the sociology and psychology student has some deeper motivations too, other than simply entertaining. I spoke about that in the Clondalkin video. So it's just weird little things like that people kind of appreciate," he says. Now, he even has a book – Meditations for the Anxious Mind’s Toxic Travel Guide – which takes an alternative and surreal look at each of Ireland's 32 counties and their inhabitants. As well as writing, shooting, narrating and editing his videos, Frankie says that "about 90 per cent" of his green screen clips feature music he made himself. Not only that, but he is currently attending Maynooth University to study a degree in Psychology and Sociology.The book delivers the same deadpan humour found in Frankie's videos, many of which have gone viral thanks to their inherently shareable quality. If you live in an area of Ireland that he's covered in his 'Ancient Mysteries' series, you've undoubtedly seen him appear on your social media feed. It was a place that had piqued McNamara's curiosity ever since playing the Irish version of Monopoly as a child. He had never heard of it before. Did it even exist? A satirical take on online wellness gurus later morphed into something different: an alternative guide to well-known locations in Dublin and beyond. People generally love when you're talking about things that they know, and things that maybe haven't been spoken about," he says. If you threw it at someone's house it would probably break a window," he agrees. "It's pretty hefty."

READ NEXT - All 142 movies and TV shows leaving Netflix UK and Ireland in November Read More Related Articles I meditated every morning, I still do, but I would listen to some of these guided meditations and just listen to how - can I swear? - listen to how full of s**t they were. And then I thought, 'I can be full of s**t too', so I started doing comedy meditations where I put on the spiritual voice," he laughs. McNamara counts the late US comedian George Carlin as one of his heroes – a man who was certainly never afraid to mix comedy with a social or political agenda. But he was always so kind to me and so encouraging, you know... He was a straight talker. So I knew what he was telling me was the truth. And that really gave me so much encouragement."Did you know that no one in Cork City can remember anyone's name, which is why Corkonians are either called 'bai', 'kid' or 'girl'?