Irish Spirits

An Deoch Fola

November 28, 2020 Season 1 Episode 4
Irish Spirits
An Deoch Fola
Show Notes

This episode we got well....sexy! When you think vampire, you may think, Tom Cruise or Robert Pattinson but we would  argue that vampires are inherently - Irish. We take what we call the dearg-diúlaí or 'red-blood drinkers' of Irish lore and  look at Dracula's Irish cousins in this episode. Indeed, we sink our teeth into the idea that Dracula was Irish after all. From the vampire tropes that emerged from the Irish perfecting the genre of Gothic literature to us examining the effects of garlic, this was a bumper episode! It went by in a blur and the next day we felt drained, but that could have been the effects of the cocktail chosen by our resident bartender - Alex! As always please drink responsibly and find the recipe for An Deoch Fola over on our Instagram @irishspiritspodcast! An Deoch Fola was our attempt at a pun 'as Gaeilge' as in English it means 'blood drink' - enjoy :)

To help sharpen our fangs, our sources were: P. Tremayne (P. Beresford-Ellis) and P. Haining, The Undead (Constable 1997), O.G. Hoyt, Lust for Blood (Scarborough 1984), J. Wardell and T.J. Westrop, ‘The History and Antiquities of St Catherine’s Old Abbey in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (1904), J. Curtin, Irish Fairy Tales (Barnes and Noble 1993), Turtle Bunbury for newstalk.com at https://www.newstalk.com/newstalk-breakfast/hidden-histories-wturtle-bunbury-irelands-victorian-vampires-716760, Bob Curran - History Ireland (lecturer of Folklore at Coleraine) https://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/was-dracula-an-irishman/ , National Geographic - ‘The Bloody Truth about Vampires, Becky Little at https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/10/vampires-europe-new-england-halloween-history/ , Dearg - Diúlaí, The Irish Vampires (Derry & Wexford) - Tarquin Blake, Dr. Michael Hefferon (now based in Canada) being interviewed in the Irish Times back in 2019, Nick Groom - The Vampire: A New History, www.vampirewebsite.net, The Lost Journal of Bram Stoker: The Dublin Years, Mark Jenkins - Vampire Forensics, Dr Michael Hefferon - Of Plagues and Vampires: Believable Myths and Unbelievable Facts from Medical Practice, https://hekint.org/2020/02/04/control-of-blood/ EC Spary ‘Control of Blood’ and further suggested reading from us: ‘Vampire of Venice’ Unmasked: Plague Victim & Witch?”,  “Archaeologists Suspect Vampire Burial; An Undead Primer.'


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