Buy Bram Stoker – Gibbet Hill
The Rotunda Foundation is delighted to partner with Dublin City Council Bram Stoker Festival on bringing the story of this discovery to the world. On Saturday 26th October, the festival will present a public event in the Pillar Room at the Rotunda Hospital with Miriam O’Callaghan interviewing Brian Cleary, Paul Murray (Stoker’s pre-eminent biographer) and visual artist Paul McKinley about Brian’s incredible find, the fascinating and heartwarming story behind it, and what it means for the legacy of Bram Stoker.
The festival is Dublin’s premier celebration of the Gothic, the mysterious, and the supernatural. By day, the festival offers family-friendly events, talks, and interactive experiences and by night, the city embraces the darkness with thrilling adventures for those who seek the macabre. The festival celebrates the legacy of Bram Stoker, one of Ireland’s most renowned authors, and brings to life the stories and history that have captivated audiences for over a century.
Biographies
Paul Murray
Paul Murray is the author of From the Shadow of Dracula: A Life of Bram Stoker
(2004) and A Fantastic Journey: the Life and Literature of Lafcadio Hearn (1993),
which won the Koizumi Yakumo Literary Prize in Japan and the Lord Mayor of
Dublin's Commendation in 1995. He edited The Japanese Ghost Stories of Lafcadio
Hearn for Penguin Classics (2019) and contributed the entries on Stoker and Hearn to
the Dictionary of Irish Biography (2009). A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and a
former Irish diplomat, Murray was Irish Ambassador to South Korea and North Korea
(1999-2004), and to the OECD and UNESCO in Paris (2006-12). He served twice at
the Irish Embassy, London, 1974-75 and 1989-97. His other postings included Tokyo,
Ottawa, New York, and Strasbourg. He edited Ireland today for the Department of
Foreign Affairs, Dublin, 1975-78. His 2023 interview with the literary journal, The
Wise Owl, is available on YouTube (https://www.interviewsthewiseowl.com/the-interview-paul-murray).
Paul McKinley
Paul McKinley is an artist living and working in Dublin. Recent
exhibitions include, ‘Sacred Trust, Donations and their legacy’,
Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, 2024, ‘Pomegranate’, (solo) Kevin
Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin, 2023, ‘Blume’, (solo) Kevin Kavanagh
Gallery, Dublin, 2021. ‘From the Mountain’, works from the Arts
Council collection, Wexford Arts Centre, 2019 and ‘Many Worlds’,
Centre Cultural Irlandais, Paris, 2017.
Awarded the prestigious Nissan Art Project in 2007, McKinley
has exhibited nationally and internationally and his work is included
in the collections of Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, An Chomhairle
Ealaíon/The Arts Council, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Trinity College
Dublin, Office of Public Works and Allied Irish Bank and Kildare
County Council.
Brian Cleary
A long-lost short story by the author of Dracula, Bram Stoker, has been rediscovered after over 130 years.
Clinical pharmacist Brian Cleary found the story, Gibbet Hill, pressed in a newspaper supplement from the Christmas of 1890.
After an experience of sudden hearing loss, Cleary had been pursuing his lifelong passion for the works of Bram Stoker at the National Library of Ireland, leafing through old clippings, when he made the discovery.
All proceeds from sales of Gibbet Hill will go to the Rotunda Foundation’s Charlotte Stoker Fund to support research into deafness in babies – a fund named for Bram Stoker’s mother, who was an advocate for deaf people.
Gibbet Hill is having its world premiere tomorrow at Dublin’s Bram Stoker Festival.
He writes about hearing loss and severe tinnitus at www.noisysilence.ie