Bram Stoker museum in Fairview/Clontarf?

Drugness

Hello all
I've seen mixed information about this museum which is supposedly near the Clontarf Road Dart station.
Is it still there open for business or is it long since closed down as some websites would suggest (and others would dispute)?
When I phoned the contact number I saw online for the museum, it brought me through to the voicemail for BARCODE. So I don't know if i'm wasting my time chasing up on this
Any ideas on whether the museum is still there and can be visited?
Many thanks everyone
DG

MarchDub

Drugness wrote: »

Hello all
I've seen mixed information about this museum which is supposedly near the Clontarf Road Dart station.
Is it still there open for business or is it long since closed down as some websites would suggest (and others would dispute)?
When I phoned the contact number I saw online for the museum, it brought me through to the voicemail for BARCODE. So I don't know if i'm wasting my time chasing up on this
Any ideas on whether the museum is still there and can be visited?
Many thanks everyone
DG

I don't know about the museum - I think it closed - but I know the Stoker house where he lived is in The Crescent at Fairview/Marino and it's up for sale. There is talk that the Bram Stoker society is trying to put money together to buy it and turn it into a museum.

CDfm

The Bram Stoker Society Newsletter lists a proposed event in Trinity in April and gives contact details.

http://www.brianjshowers.com/stokernewsletter2011a.html

I would love to know more about the guy.

MarchDub

CDfm wrote: »

I would love to know more about the guy.

He married Oscar Wilde's first girlfriend - how's that for starters?

CDfm

MarchDub wrote: »

He married Oscar Wilde's first girlfriend - how's that for starters?

Brilliant :cool:

Bring it on.

MarchDub

Here are a few images of the lady - Florence Balcombe. The one on the left was actually drawn by Wilde.

Stoker was a frequent guest at the Wilde house in Merrion Square where Oscar's mother, Jane, who wrote under the name of Speranza, held literary salons.

That's apparently how he met Florence who was being courted by Oscar at the time.

adee

Florence Balcombe lived at No 1 The Crescent and Bram at No 15.
His baptism is recorded in Clontarf COI here
http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/59e52a0005788
scroll down to see the original page.
Marriage to Florence was also in the same church in Clontarf.
http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/d4ac8a0527466
To the OP, sorry, the museum is long gone.

CDfm

MarchDub wrote: »

Here are a few images of the lady - Florence Balcombe. The one on the left was actually drawn by Wilde.

Stoker was a frequent guest at the Wilde house in Merrion Square where Oscar's mother, Jane, who wrote under the name of Speranza, held literary salons.

That's apparently how he met Florence who was being courted by Oscar at the time.

What years are we talking about as the Wilde's had some tough times in Dublin. There was a scandal :eek:

MarchDub

CDfm wrote: »

What years are we talking about as the Wilde's had some tough times in Dublin. There was a scandal :eek:

She married Bram Stoker in 1878 - so her relationship with Oscar was dated to about two years prior to that.

By the 'scandal' I presume you mean Oscar's father Sir William Wilde and the Mary Travers 'episode' where she more than hinted that he had raped her and then sued Lady Wilde for libel when she repeated the allegation. That all happened some years prior to this - the court case was May 1864 when Oscar and his brother were children.

Interestingly Isaac Butt was the barrister for Mary Travers. But all easily forgotten by the 70s.

Richard Ellmann in his biography of Wilde says tellingly of that period in Dublin that "The Old Regency permissiveness lingered in the Dublin of this time".

Drugness

Thanks for all the responses everyone
Sorry that the museum is closed but glad i could help start i thread with great potential!
See y'all!

Jolly661

Isn't it amazing that Dracula was probably 'conceived' in Dublin. This year in April and again in July there are a large number of events being held for visitors to Dublin and natives alike. Trinity are having a 2 day event on 5t-6th July. Bram's great grand nephew, Dacre Stoker, author of "The Undead", a sequel to "Dracula" will be coming to the Stoker Get-together in July. I will pass more information on as it becomes available.

Jolly661

Bram was married in St Anne's C of I in Dawson Street to Florence Balcombe.

Kavrocks

I don't know if the museum is still there, it is/was inside Barcode (that is you enter through the same door you would for Barcode and its upstairs at the back).

As far as I remember the sign for it is still up outside of Barcode, I'd suggest ringing the number again and asking if its still there.

CDfm

Bram got cremated which is how you kill a vampire.

Judgement Day

CDfm wrote: »

Bram got cremated which is how you kill a vampire.

I thought a stake through the heart was the only sure thing?

CDfm

Judgement Day wrote: »

I thought a stake through the heart was the only sure thing?

They only went and destroyed the evidence haven't they.:D

ashestoashes

Originally Posted by CDfm
Bram got cremated which is how you kill a vampire.
I thought a stake through the heart was the only sure thing?

I read that on April 20-the Dracula Society is going to gather at the cemetery in London where Stoker has been for the last 100 years.
Like they are expecting something to happen.
So maybe there is no such thing as a sure thing.

Jolly661

Have you read "Dracula - Sense and Nonsense" by Elizabeth Miller? A book which debunks all the non-sense that is spread around about Dracula. I understand that Miller will be coming from America to speak at the National Library in July as part of the centenary.

CDfm

The book is on-line free

http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Bram_Stoker/Dracula/

And Bela Lugosi from 1931

ashestoashes

And Bela Lugosi from 1931

Thanks--That is great to see.
Have you seen this website the Stoker family has?
Lots about Ireland. Dublin Centennial activities.
Not a lot about stakes and cremation.
http://www.bramstokerestate.com/Home-of-Bram-Stoker-Estate-Gothic-Dracula-Official-website-Bram-Stoker-Estate.html

CDfm

I just looked and it is a great site.

Nodferatu

i been a dracula fan for some time now, but don't know a whole lot about the creator/bram stoker himself, that website is pretty useful i must say. its insane to think there isn't even a museum or something here tributes to bram stoker/dracula, dracula has spawned countless hollywood films over the century.

ashestoashes

Bram Stoker museum in Fairview/Clontarf?

NODFERATU--LOVE THAT NAME!!!

Back to the original post- Clontarf is not the place for a memorial to Bram Stoker--and surely the neighbors in the Crescent would object to the amount of activity a museum would (hope to) generate. It would be better to have something in an area of town that tourists want to visit. There have been news articles about the Stokers trying to get a statue made of Stoker, but the Dublin won't approve any location.
I read the blue plaque is back on Kildare St, but I haven't seen any pictures of it.

Nodferatu

thanks ashestoashes, nosferatu was taken, yeah i agree generally, if a museum were to surface it should be more central as it would be a big attraction to tourists. the bram stoker house is on adverts.ie, was on ebay and came across this.... original 1897 DRACULA 1ST EDITION by Bram Stoker print in pristine condition for only €9173

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/1897-DRACULA-1ST-EDITION-Bram-Stoker-/310304818549?pt=Antiquarian_Collectible&hash=item483f9bc575#ht_2869wt_1413

ashestoashes

Strange--I thought I picked this link up here, but now I have lost the thread with this link. This is SO TELLING RE THE DUBLIN TOURISM NON-ENTITIES - they are probably deleting it as fast as anybody puts it up.
Heads should roll.

THIS STUDY CALLS A SPADE A SPADE..........https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:1GUwMeqyEssJ:www.dcba.ie/static/doclib/Rejuvenating_the_Tourism_Product_in_Dublin._Finaldoc.pdf+dcba.ie/static/doclib/Rejuvenating_the_Tourism_Product_in_Dublin&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESj4zvNsD9JhiCj6KPsWfx-exWPUGpUTX3MqDW9iFJS5DlK9QzES2T1u4GlHDuI9NsnRcX-z1PFDMm3om0KHU7AzYUmOjNE45nyUrLkI2PzGo0O6vy-N3a2BpuFwm8HUSh8qVvr7&sig=AHIEtbT3k5D3Bu64-doQGrEA2_LgX6aFnw

Judgement Day

ashestoashes wrote: »

Strange--I thought I picked this link up here, but now I have lost the thread with this link. This is SO TELLING RE THE DUBLIN TOURISM NON-ENTITIES - they are probably deleting it as fast as anybody puts it up.
Heads should roll.

THIS STUDY CALLS A SPADE A SPADE..........https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:1GUwMeqyEssJ:www.dcba.ie/static/doclib/Rejuvenating_the_Tourism_Product_in_Dublin._Finaldoc.pdf+dcba.ie/static/doclib/Rejuvenating_the_Tourism_Product_in_Dublin&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESj4zvNsD9JhiCj6KPsWfx-exWPUGpUTX3MqDW9iFJS5DlK9QzES2T1u4GlHDuI9NsnRcX-z1PFDMm3om0KHU7AzYUmOjNE45nyUrLkI2PzGo0O6vy-N3a2BpuFwm8HUSh8qVvr7&sig=AHIEtbT3k5D3Bu64-doQGrEA2_LgX6aFnw

Wow, that's some report alright and I had never come across it before - like some of the attractions named in it. I'm going to print it out before commenting further. To me this picture says more about Dublin's tourism product than any report can. :mad:


With a telling accompanying caption: 'Because I'm interested in vehicles, my first destination in Howth was the National Transport Museum.
Unfortunately, despite a sign saying the museum opened at 10:00, it was closed when I arrived. It didn't look like much from the outside.'

http://daryllang.com/dublin/2.html

ashestoashes

To me this picture says more about Dublin's tourism product than any report can.

The guy's photos are great--
the Museum

---

???
lame, totally lame
must have spent a pretty penny for the report. Hope somebody who can do something reads it & acts.

Nodferatu

anyone hear the ryan tubridy show on radio this morning? they were having a chat about a possible bram stoker statue and why one doesn't exist in dublin already. t'was quite interesting.

ashestoashes

didnt hear it. Should be a statue to Stoker for sure. Did it sound likely?

Nodferatu

apparently the stoker family applied AND was granted permission to have a statue erected back in 2009 or something!! forget which year exactly but the problem is they, and the dublin city council haven't come to an agreement where it can put, one of the places st. stephens green but dublin city council won't allow it there god know's why. (bram lived on stephens green for a while). they haven't come to an agreement where they want it. thats the only reason by the sounds of it

ashestoashes

Thanks--maybe I can listen to it on pod cast.
Lots in the news about Bram Stoker & Dracula because tomorrow is the centenary. Maybe Dublin tourism will go with it.............