I R E L A N DS i d e l i n e s

History

■ The private notebook of Bram Stoker hasbeen discovered in an attic on the Isle of Wight,offering clues to the origins of his most famouswork, Dracula. The notebook was found by theauthor’s great-grandson, Noel Dobbs. He senta facsimile of the book to Stoker’s great-grandnephew Dacre Stoker, an author himself,who has deciphered his ancestor’s ‘terrible’handwriting with the help of Dr Elizabeth Millerof the Transylvanian Society of Dracula. The LostJournal, complete with annotations, is nowlined up for publication by Robson Press nextyear, marking the centenary of Bram Stoker’sdeath in 1912.

■ Who knew there was another ‘dead zoo’? Itseems that Dublin is not the only place with anatural history museum full of stuffed creatures.NUI Galway has its own museum, which hasrecently published an updated catalogue.Among its collection is a cuckoo known for itspungent odour, an Azara’s ‘false fox’ and 100glass representations of marine mammals bythe famous father and son team of Leopold andRudolf Blaschka of Dresden. Significantly, fourof the museum’s items actually belonged toCharles Darwin and had been collected by himduring his famous voyage on the Beagle. Thecollection is open to the public free of charge.See galwayscience.ie for details.

■ ‘Mummy, please come home!’ is the plea ofEgyptian authorities after the discovery of amummy in University College Cork. Theuniversity’s Boole Library has a number ofEgyptian artefacts but no record of how themummy and its wooden casket came into itspossession. More mysteriously, for a long time itwas hidden under floorboards in the pathologydepartment. The body dates from around 300BC and is that of a middle-aged, well-off manwho appears to have died from natural causes.Egypt wants it back to put into the new GreatEgyptian Museum at Giza, which was designedby Dublin architects Heneghan Peng and is dueto open in 2013. UCC say they’ll talk aboutgiving the mummy back.

■ Next year the Olympics come to London,providing the chance for us to look into ourown Olympic heritage. (There’s a special issueof HI in the pipeline for July/August 2012.)Louth County Museum, Dundalk, is currentlyresearching a major exhibition highlighting theinvolvement of Irish athletes and officials in theOlympics from 1896 to the present day. Theexhibition will open in summer 2012 and runfor several months. Curator Brian Walsh islooking for assistance from the public inputting it together. He would welcomeanecdotes and oral testimonies, along withitems and memorabilia pertaining to Irishinvolvement in the Olympics in any way. If youthink you can help, contact Brian or hiscolleague Anita Barrett at 042-9327056 orolympics@dundalkmuseum.ie.

by Tony Canavan

6 History IRELAND January/February 2012

biographies on the right, abridged andtranslated versions of the entries on ainm.ie,give a flavour of the entries.

Did you know?There are 1.3 million words in the originalprinted work, the Beathaisnéis series.● 118 of the subjects featured lived to the

age of 90.● ainm.ie contains the biographies of 1,536

men and 157 women.● An Claidheamh Soluis* is the most

frequently cited Irish-language publication.Blackrock College* is the most frequentlymentioned school.

● Trinity College, Dublin,* is the mostfrequently mentioned university.

● Maynooth* is the most frequentlymentioned town.

● Dublin* is the most frequently mentionedcounty and city.

● Short lives: James Cogan (1874–98);William Haliday (1788–1812).

● Long lives: Colm de Bhailís (1796–1906);Bríd Uí Dhireáin (1894–2003).

● Ó Súilleabháin is the most commonsurname (36 subjects) among thosefeatured on ainm.ie.

*These statistics are based on current records.Work on tagging the database is ongoing. HI

Mairéad Nic Lochlainn is Research Editor atFiontar, DCU.

Mairéad Nic Lochlainn details a newly available Irish-languagebiographies website—www.ainm.ie—at Fiontar, DCU.

The contents of www.ainm.ie arebased on the nine-volume seriesBeathaisnéis by Diarmuid Breathnachand Máire Ní Mhurchú (1986–2007). Itis a valuable research tool comprisingalmost 1,700 biographies dating from1560 to the present day. Each of thefeatured lives has made a uniquecontribution to the Irish language overthe last five centuries. The peoplefeatured hail from every corner of Ireland(and in some cases from much furtherafield), and some were active in a widefield of endeavours. While the Irishlanguage forms the common thread, theentire narrative is multi-faceted and willbe of great interest to historians, localcommunities, the families of the peoplefeatured, Irish-language academics andthe Irish diaspora.

The metadata on the websitefacilitate searching and browsing on ascale not possible in print. The enhancedfeatures available include alphabeticallisting of biographies; cross-referencing;full-text search of keywords and phrases;and a timeline. Selected themes aretagged in the biographies (place-names,works, organisations, references toConradh na Gaeilge, educationalinstitutions) and the site also includes afeatured ‘biography of the week’ and aninterview with the authors. The two

MANY LIVES, ONE CONNECTION

■ Another Irish university has been in thenews for helping to identify a lost Velázquezmasterpiece. Put up for auction as the workof a nineteenth-century British artist, sharp-eyed auctioneers at Bonham’s thought itlooked too good. They sent it to Velázquezexpert Dr Peter Cherry at Trinity College,Dublin. After careful examination, heconcluded that the portrait was the work notof Mathew Shepperson but of the greatSpanish master. By Shepperson it was valuedat around €600, but as an original Velázquezit is worth a tiny bit more . . . like €3 millionmore. So check those paintings hanging upat home. They may be worth more than youthink!

■ A chilling insight into victims of the GreatFamine has been revealed by the discoveryof 970 skeletons in a forgotten burial site inthe old workhouse in Kilkenny duringexcavations for a shopping centre in 2005.Since then they have been studied by JonnyGeber, an osteoarchaeologist. The study hasrevealed the range of people buried there,the types of diseases of which they died andtheir underlying health before the faminestruck. The majority (56%) were children. Anunexpected revelation was that most of thevictims had scurvy and that this contributedto their deaths. Until now scurvy was notconsidered a major factor compared totyphus or tuberculosis.

■ Have you people no shame? Bad enoughthat statues and cables are stolen for themetal in them, but unscrupulous thieveshave stolen a relic of the True Cross fromHolycross Abbey, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.Masked men broke into the abbey and stoletwo crosses, both about 30cm in height anddating from the Middle Ages; one is silverwith two dark stones and the other is madeof bronze. The relic was donated in 1233 byQueen Isabella of Angoulême, the widow ofKing John of England. The thieves used anangle grinder, hammer and screwdriver tocut through the steel door of the cabinetwhere the precious relics were on display.We can only hope that they were stolen for acollector (in which case they might berecovered) rather than for their scrap value.

■ They’ve clocked up a lot of mileage in 100years but that is how long one of Ireland’sbiggest motor vehicle businesses has beengoing. Belfast-based Hurst Motors wasfounded in 1911 and now has thirteenoutlets across the island, employing 800staff. To mark the occasion they haveproduced an official history, which charts thecompany from its obscure beginnings tobeing one of the country’s most successfulbusinesses. The book comes with a six-month warranty and free service for the firstyear.

I R E L A N DS i d e l i n e s

History

by Tony Canavan

7History IRELAND January/February 2012

Mairéad Ní Ghráda (1896–1971)Playwright from Knockadangan, Co.Clare. She won a universityscholarship and was awarded a BA (inIrish, French and English) and an MAin Irish in UCD. While there she was amember of Cumann na mBan andConradh na Gaeilge. She was jailed atone point for selling republican flagson Grafton Street. She later worked asa teacher, as timire (Conradh naGaeilge organiser) and as secretary toErnest Blythe in the Dáil and duringthe Civil War. From 1926 onwards shespent nine years working for 2RN(Radio Éireann), compilingprogrammes for women and children.She was the first female announcer inIreland and Britain, and perhaps inEurope. She later returned toteaching and her first play, An Uacht,was written for the students to whomshe was teaching Irish at the time butended up being produced by MicheálMac Liammóir in the Gate Theatre.The following are some of her plays:Giolla an tSolais (1945), Lá buíBealtaine (1953), Úil glas OícheShamhna (1955), Súgán sneachta(1959), Stailc Ocrais (1960), Mac UíRudaí (1961), An Triail (1964) andBreithiúnas (1968). An Triail broughther most fame; it was first performedin An Damer on 22 September 1964and was later broadcast on televisionon 21 October 1964. Tomás MacAnna, the producer, described AnTriail as an achievement comparableto Brendan Behan’s The Hostage.

Pádraig Ó Fágáin (1922–2011)Writer/historian from Farrancallin, Co.Westmeath. He achieved 257 marks inhistory in the Intermediate Certificate,i.e. full marks plus seven extra fordoing the exam through the mediumof Irish! He left school without sittingthe Leaving Certificate. He wrote plays,short stories, poems and books in Irish,for example Bíonn an fhírinne searbh(1982) and Fíon an ghrá agus drámaíeile (1983). His book Éigse na hIarmhí(1985) deals with the works of poets inWestmeath, including theirtranslations. It also deals with thedecline of the Irish language in thecounty, a topic that had not previouslyreceived much consideration. Hishistorical works include Dividedloyalties: the question of an oath for IrishCatholics in the eighteenth century(1977), The second city: a portrait ofDublin 1700–1760 (1986) and AGeorgian celebration: Irish poets of theeighteenth century (1989). He wrotetwo biographies, Dublin’s turbulentpriest: Cornelius Nary 1658–1738(1991) and An Irish bishop in penaltimes: the chequered career of SylvesterLloyd OFM, 1680–1747 (1993). He wasawarded an honorary doctorate by theNational University of Ireland in 2000.Despite this, he felt that he was nevergiven his due as a historian:

‘. . . the reality is that, as far asacademia in the round isconcerned (I know there areexceptions), I do not rate at all, orvery little, as a historian. Thereappears to be a great stigmaattached (by the academics, ofcourse) to those historians whocome in by the back door, as itwere . . .’