Athlone Community Radio interviewed Morgan Fagg on Halloween about an unusual story he was sharing with the Bloomsday Society in Madrid for Halloween night.
On Wednesday October 31st in the prestigious El Ateneo theatre in the centre of Madrid, The Bloomsday Society met to discuss the works of James Joyce where Athlonian Morgan Fagg had organised a special Halloween reading about Dracula to honour Bram Stoker as well.
Mr Fagg from Cornamagh told the group an unusual story about meeting Prince Dracula (1940-2007) in Berlin in 2001. A very real person who took his title very seriously where he organised Blood Drives for the German Red Cross and collected bats and coffins and started a red wine label with the Dracula family crest.
From his castle outside of Berlin, Ottomar Rodolphe Vlad Dracula Prinz Kretzulesco was not an actual blood relative of Vlad the Impaler but was adopted into the family to keep the name alive. Prince Dracula passed away in 2007 but the legend of Vlad the Impaler certainly lives on through the works of Bram Stoker who published the gothic novel Dracula in 1897 and based the character Count Dracula on the Romanian ruler Vlad III . This one book has inspired many vampire versions of Vlad the Impaler with an estimated 700 books and films being inspired by Dubliner Bram Stoker.
Before the clock struck 12 on all hallow’s eve and people started to celebrate All Saints’ Day and The Day of the Dead on November 1, two Irish writers were honoured in Madrid on the eve of National Author’s Day, a day that celebrates the works of famous writers. Mr Fagg recalled his own true story about meeting Prince Dracula which was well received by the Bloomsday Society.
Photograph: Bill Dixon
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