As many of you may have seen while walking around the city last weekend, a number of buildings were lit up red in honour of Bram Stoker. The people at the Bram Stoker Festival, which ran from the 26th to 28th October 2013, wanted to highlight the many buildings that had some connection to Bram, his family and his writings. The College was lit a beautiful shade of red in reference to Bram's most famous literary work Dracula.
Bram's brother, William Thornley Stoker was a graduate of the RCSI and become President in 1894-1896. A detailed account of his life can be found on the Royal College of Physicians recent blog post
http://rcpilibrary.blogspot.ie/2013/10/real-and-imaginary-medics-in-life-of.html
Having such a skilled and prominent surgeon as a brother it is easy to see how Bram could have drawn inspiration from Thornley for his writings. But Bram's other brother's could also have fed his creative mind.
His brother Richard was a medical man who was involved in the Siege of Plevna with the Turks and fought in the Afghan and Zulu campaigns. Bram's other brother George was also an army man. George served with the Turks through the Bulgarian and Russian campaigns and in the Zulu War he was Assistant Commissioner to the Stafford House Committee.
Each brother would have had a multitude of stories about the different cultures they encountered, battles they took part in, the aftermath of bloody fighting, conducting operations on patients and the conditions of working in a war zone as a medic. I can only surmise that these tales would have been at the forefront of Bram's mind when he sat down to create his most famous masterpiece Dracula.
- Photos provided by Liz McNicholl
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| 123 Stephens Green light up in honour of Bram Stoker |
http://rcpilibrary.blogspot.ie/2013/10/real-and-imaginary-medics-in-life-of.html
Having such a skilled and prominent surgeon as a brother it is easy to see how Bram could have drawn inspiration from Thornley for his writings. But Bram's other brother's could also have fed his creative mind.
 |
| 123 Stephens Green |
His brother Richard was a medical man who was involved in the Siege of Plevna with the Turks and fought in the Afghan and Zulu campaigns. Bram's other brother George was also an army man. George served with the Turks through the Bulgarian and Russian campaigns and in the Zulu War he was Assistant Commissioner to the Stafford House Committee.
Each brother would have had a multitude of stories about the different cultures they encountered, battles they took part in, the aftermath of bloody fighting, conducting operations on patients and the conditions of working in a war zone as a medic. I can only surmise that these tales would have been at the forefront of Bram's mind when he sat down to create his most famous masterpiece Dracula.
- Photos provided by Liz McNicholl