The Sunday Show

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Sunday, 12 October 2025 - 41 minutes

The Irishness of Dracula with Historian Dennis McIntyre

This week on The Sunday Show, Ed sinks his teeth into one of Ireland’s most fascinating literary legacies — the story of Dracula and its Irish creator, Bram Stoker.  Joining him is historian and author Dennis McIntyre, whose acclaimed book The Irishness of Dracula explores how Ireland’s complex history, gothic landscapes, and deep spiritual dualities helped shape the world’s most famous vampire. Together they journey through the dark corridors of Victorian imagination, the flickering candlelight of Dublin’s literary salons, and the cultural roots that gave birth to a global legend.

Abraham “Bram” Stoker was born in 1847 in Clontarf, Dublin — the same year the Great Famine ravaged Ireland. Sickly as a child, he spent much of his early life confined to bed, listening to stories told by his mother, Charlotte Thornley, whose haunting tales of cholera outbreaks, superstition, and Irish folklore left a permanent mark on his imagination.  However at the age of fourteen a metamorphosis took place and Stoker finally grew, and grew to reach a height of 6'2" which was very tall for the period. Now strong and walking, he attended Trinity College Dublin, where he excelled academically and athletically and even played rugby in Trinity.  But while his studies focused on mathematics and science, his true passion was storytelling.

After university, Stoker began working in the civil service at Dublin Castle. Yet his creative spirit found an outlet in the city’s thriving theatre scene, where he became the unpaid drama critic for the Evening Mail. His insightful reviews caught the attention of the celebrated actor Sir Henry Irving, who invited Stoker to become his personal manager at London’s Lyceum Theatre. It was a life-changing offer — one that brought Stoker into the heart of Victorian London’s glittering society while exposing him to its darker undercurrents of fear, repression, and desire.

Despite a demanding career, Stoker continued to write prolifically, producing novels, short stories, and essays. But it was Dracula, published in 1897, that sealed his immortality. Set between Transylvania and England, the novel reflects more than a gothic imagination — it mirrors the Irish experience of invasion, colonisation, and identity. Dennis McIntyre’s work reveals how Stoker, consciously or not, infused his tale with Irish myth and political allegory: a foreign invader crossing the sea to drain the life from a struggling nation. The vampire, in McIntyre’s eyes, becomes both a symbol of fear and of fascination — an outsider and a mirror of Stoker’s own divided identity as an Irishman living in imperial London.

Through Stoker’s pen, the supernatural met the psychological, and Dracula became a story not only of horror, but of belonging, exile, and the human need for redemption. On this week’s show, Ed and Dennis delve into those Irish roots, uncovering how Clontarf’s windswept shores and Dublin’s dark tales helped create a creature who still stalks the world’s imagination. It’s a conversation steeped in history, myth, and mystery — and proof that even in the darkest stories, Ireland’s literary light still shines through.

A huge thanks to Dennis McIntyre for such an interesting programme this evening.

The Bram Stoker Festival takes place here from Oct 31st to Nov 3rd

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