Stoker, Yeats, and Cosmetic Surgery

I didn't expect any success today. It was raining, and I've noticed that it's a bit challenging to get a lot accomplished in Dublin when the pavement is slick. Might it mean that the Irish lad in me is growing into a bit of an Irishman? I was able to cover more ground than I originally thought!

I still wanted to find Bram Stoker's home. It's interesting that the man responsible for writing Dracula was Irish and attended Trinity College. He never visited Transylvania.

(As a side, a gentleman from Romania I met in Kilkenny told me that Bram Stoker has done wonderful things for the country's tourist industry.)

I did a little research on the Internet, and found that Stoker had lived at 30 Kildare Street in Dublin. This is not far from Trinity College and close to the National Library.

So, I crossed the Liffey and headed in the general direction of his home. I found the address without too much difficulty. The strange thing? 30 Kildare Street is home to a cosmetic surgery center called The Hospital Group!

I rang the bell and was buzzed in. Inside I found a receptionist on the phone. She was explaining to someone why they were not eligible for lap band surgery. (Whoever was on the phone with her was quite stubborn; their conversation went on for quite some time. How many times does one have to listen to information about their BMI?)

Once the receptionist was off the phone, she told me that I had found Stoker's former home, and that the new owners intend to put up some sort of plaque in the future. (In all honesty, I'm not certain this would be such a good idea. Would one want to advertise a cosmetic surgery clinic as being situated in the former home of the author of world's most famous vampire novel?)

After that, I set out for the Irish Traditional Music Archives (ITMA). Susan McKeown had recommended I visit it when I saw her in Kilkenny.

While I got lost along the way, I was surprised to come across W.B. Yeats' former home... located almost next door to a Montessori school. (What are the odds?)

Eventually, I found the ITMA; it was absolutely amazing! The organization describes itself as, "a national public archive, information centre, and resource centre for everyone one with an interest in contemporary artforms of Irish traditional song, instrumental music, and dance, and in their history."

The center has an extensive collection of sheet music, books, periodicals, musical recordings, and several instruments. An extremely helpful woman named Treasa gave me an orientation to the collection and resource center. I spent quite some time going through their collections looking for references to Irish folklore... I was looking to see how Irish folklore is represented in traditional Irish music. For example, I explored different supernatural beings. The word fairy yielded 417 hits in the ITMA database. Banshee came in second with 108. Others that were "up there": mermaid (46 hits), leprechaun (42), sidhe (37), witch (23), and giant (20).

I tried experimenting with instruments. Can you guess what instrument was represented in the collection most prominently? The harp. The harp is the national instrument of Ireland, and it yielded 851 hits. Fiddle came in second with 422 hits. Not a surprise. Other ones that were high up on the list? The violin with 112, the concertina had 109, the traditional Irish frame drum called the bodhran, had 103, as did the banjo.

Finally, I was fortunate to see some beautiful instruments including an Irish harp and melodeon. There was also a unique gramophone.

All in all, a very literary and musical day.