Monday 16 April 2012

Was Dracula Irish?

This week, Friday 20th to be exact, sees the centenary of the death of Bram Stoker, the Irish-born author who brought us Count Dracula. If ghoulish curiosity or love of gothic literature is your thing, you'll be interested in these events in Dublin:

A specially commissioned portrait of Stoker by artist Aidan Hickey has been unveiled at the Concourse Gallery, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Hall. It will be on view there until 29th April when it moves to a permanent home at the Writers Centre, Parnell Square.

The Gallery is open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday, and 11am to 5pm on Sundays.

This evening (16th), Clontarf Historical Society will be hosting a lecture by Dennis McIntyre who will present the argument that the inspiration for the vampire was uniquely Irish: his mother's tales of cholera in Sligo, St Michan's church, famine, landlords, suicide graveyards and religious tabboos. The event gets underway at St John's Hall, Clontarf Road at 8:15pm (finishes 9:30pm) and is open to the public. Admission €4.

The Royal Irish Academy on Dawson Street will be the venue on Thursday 19th April for a lecture by Terry Eagleton in which Dracula will be considered in the context of some traditional notions of evil, including the very different presentation of the idea of evil in Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman. It will also raise the question of Stoker’s Irish Protestant background and its relevance to his fiction. The lecture starts at 6pm. Booking at www.ria.ie

Also on Thursday 19th is a book launch at the Writers Museum, 18 Parnell Square. Stoker: The Lost History by Gabriel Murray explores new research discovered by the author when writing a new screenplay on Dracula's creator. Short lectures will also be presented by Gabriel Murray and John J May. The event starts at 7:30pm.

Friday 20th
will see a dramatised reading in costume of exerpts from Stoker's Dracula at the Writers Museum, 18 Parnell Street, Dublin. This starts at 1:10pm.

Additionally, two Bram Stoker commemorative postage stamps will be released by AN Post on the 19th.


See following post: Dracula was Irish - the genealogical evidence.