Belfast writer who dug up Dracula’s Irish roots

Belfast-born author is returning to his native city next month to speak of his vampire-hunting adventures in Transylvania — and a new theory that links how the dastardly Dracula got his name to the Irish language.

Sean Hillen, a Ballymurphy writer, has been invited to the West Belfast Festival to speak about the years he has spent in Romania and its northern region of Transylvania researching a book on the terrifying legend of Dracula.

The former Belfast Telegraph journalist believes he has hit upon the “true Celtic roots” of the infamous Count while writing a travel book with a twist called Digging for Dracula.

For he believes that the vampire’s name does not come from the Romanian for dragon or blood, as suspected, but from the Celtic phrase ‘droch fhola’ (pronounced ‘druc ula’) meaning ‘bad blood’.