So Dracula was Irish? I read it on the BBC website so it must be true!
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-51053870.
If you thought he was Transylvanian, have a look. According to Bob Curran, a retired lecturer from Ulster University, Stoker was interested in Irish folklore, particularly a Celtic chieftain called Abhartach who is buried between Garvagh and Dungiven in Co. Londonderry.
Did Stoker have Abhartach in mind when he created Dracula? Not a doubt of it, says Bob, who has written much about vampires, werewolves and leprechauns among other interesting creatures. And indeed the connection isn’t too hard to spot, but pay attention in case you miss it. It seems this Abhartach fellow was an all round bad egg and an almighty pain in the rear end to the local peasantry who kept trying to kill him. Time and again he would reappear, demanding bowls of blood. Clearly, cries of “get yer own!” and “what, again? That’s three times this week!” had no effect, and his demands continued until someone ran him through with a sword of yew and buried him upside down surrounded by thorns. And placed a very large rock on top of him. Well that told him!
I don’t know about you (that wasn’t meant to be a pun, by the way), but I feel like that particular method of dealing with someone a bit bothersome might just be worth filing away for future reference. I have therefore classified it as “Sword of yew, with upside down burial.” It will be somewhere between “shoulder, cold” and “tires, the letting down of.” A bit more serious than unfollowing someone on Facebook or deleting them from your contacts list, but perhaps not as devastating as adding them to the “Cute Puppies email list.”
The Blethering Ant 