“Bram Stoker and the Irishness of Dracula”

Speaker: Dennis McIntyre

This presentation chronicles the fascinating life story of local author Bram Stoker .The first section of the talk details his family background ,his childhood , his Trinity college years , his time as a civil servant and his work with actor Henry Irving at Londons Lyceum Theatre .The second part of the talk concentrates on the myriad of arguments claiming that the Dracula story and character are of totally Irish origin.

(Former teacher Dennis McIntyre is a published author ,historian and tour guide . A well known Stoker/Dracula scholar and connoisseur ,he guides regular Stoker walks and presides over Stoker symposiums .He has contributed to numerous Stoker /Dracula/Gothic related radio and TV programmes .He has a special fondness for books,writing and the written word as well as for poetry and the arts in general .Mr McIntyre is the Director and CEO of Dublin North Bay Tourism).

Dennis McIntyre , at number 15 The Crescent , home of Bram Stoker

“The evil from the East: Dracula’s ‘ancestors’ and European fear of vampires”.

Speaker: Mary Muldowney

One of Sarah Lundberg’s many interests was the history of vampirism and the antecedents to Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel. Some years ago Sarah presented a fascinating talk to a meeting of the East Wall History Group on the connections between vampire stories and epidemic disease. Dublin City Council Historian in Residence Mary Muldowney will follow Sarah’s lead and will outline how the waves of cholera, plague, typhoid and typhus that swept across Europe in the 17th to 19th centuries were associated with vampires and became embedded in folklore and literature, eventually reaching Britain and Ireland.

In Bram Stoker’s early life he was subjected to medical practices that were often brutal and largely ineffective. Mary Muldowney’s talk will explore how and why some of those gruesome practices developed and why ‘night air’ or ‘miasma’ created fear in the hearts of people across Europe, particularly in the East, where epidemics were frequently believed to have originated.

Mary Muldowney (centre) with members of the East Wall History Group

This talk by Hugo McGuinness uses new research to explore the significant influence of the North Inner City on the writings of Bram Stoker – a fact previously unknown and unacknowledged.

Hugo McGuinness on Buckingham Street with Dacre Stoker , Grand-nephew of the Dracula author

A light lunch will be provided .