Ghosts of Dublin

Dublin Gothic

The film series Ghosts of Dublin showcases contemporary actors, writers and activists performing excerpts from works that are foundational to the city’s literary gothic heritage in places of cultural significance.

These films uncover the ghosts and mysteries hidden beneath the city’s streets, and posit how Ireland’s literary past haunts contemporary politics and culture. Historic buildings like Kilmainham Gaol, the Oscar Wilde House and UCD Newman House provide an atmospheric background for these uncanny tales, demonstrating how the past and present collide as modern furnishings, electric boxes, and fire alarms exist in the same spaces as ghouls from nineteenth and twentieth-century Dublin.

Ghosts of Dublin premiered at ‘Living Canvas Goes Gothic’ in collaboration with Dublin City Council’s Bram Stoker Festival 2022, and has been featured on RTÉ.

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Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) by Charles Robert Maturin

Charles Maturin’s gothic romance Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) begins when John Melmoth is summoned from his studies in Trinity College Dublin to go to the bedside of his dying uncle in Wicklow. From a series of fragmented narratives, Melmoth learns the history of his mysterious ancestor known as ‘The Wanderer’. Performed by actor Olwen Fouéré, this piece is filmed in MoLI’s atmospheric Bishop’s Room that houses a nineteenth-century library. The books, held in a locked case, ask: what is the price of knowledge?

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The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) by Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde’s gothic masterpiece The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) famously features a haunted portrait hidden in an attic. In this passage, Dorian first notices that although he himself remains physically unchanged, his cruel actions have corrupted the innocent beauty of his portrait. He contemplates his transition into manhood as a result of his newly adopted experiential philosophy: to cultivate his life as a work of art. A member of London’s elite upper class, Dorian seeks out the city’s forbidden pleasures as he explores the labyrinthine periphery of the city’s impoverished West End.

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‘The Judge’s House’ (1891) by Bram Stoker

Bram Stoker’s ‘The Judge’s House’ (1891) recounts the gradual decline of Malcolm Malcolmson. Seeking a quiet, isolated rental property in which to study for his exams, Malcolmson leases a Jacobean manor rumoured to be haunted by a notoriously ruthless judge. Each night, his concentration is interrupted by the squeals of vermin, and he is disturbed by an enormous rat that stares at him with vindictive eyes. Actor Ned Dennehy reenacts the moment the judge’s haunted portrait comes to life, and Malcolmson faces his final judgement.

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‘The Prisoner’ from Earthbound (1924) by Dorothy Macardle

This story narrates the experience of Liam Daly, a fictional political prisoner during the Irish War of Independence, who recounts his hunger strike in Kilmainham Gaol. Performed by actor Roxanna Nic Liam, Daly speaks to the ghost of a young man imprisoned during the 1798 Rebellion. This apparition encourages Daly to fight for survival and to tell the truth: that the young man did not betray his leader, Lord Edward. The story’s final lines refer to a physical trace of history, an inscription that remains in Kilmainham where this segment was filmed.