A part of Ballybough that was once shunned by superstitious locals
An area in Ballybough in Dublin seems to have had a strangely magnetic pull on writers, including Dracula author Bram Stoker
In his book The Neighbourhoods of Dublin , Weston St John Joyce recalled a time when people “would have gone a considerable round rather than pass that unhallowed spot after nightfall”. “A person found guilty . . . was sentenced to be buried at midnight at a crossroads and a stake run through their heart to prevent them returning to disturb the living.”
But that was then. Now, it seems, the sinister associations have subsided sufficiently for the site to be a charming public amenity. As revealed by curator Laura Williams, this included a “Frank McNally Corner”, which turned out to be a pair of framed Irishman’s Diaries about the area. So there it is. If I hadn’t previously achieved that status elsewhere, I am at last officially a corner boy.The aforementioned Mangan was a vampirologist before Stoker ever saw the dark of night. The former’s poems include one called “Enigma – a Vampire”.
Mud Island has long since vanished but may live on in the modern suburb’s name. Ballybough is usually said to derive from “Baile Bocht”, or the “poor town”. But as suggested to me by Dublin City Councillor and former city mayor Nial Ring, also in Clonliffe House that night, it was more likely a soft town: Baile Bog.
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