Dracula & Frankenstein
Dracula, Frankenstein and Ballyshannon
Mary Shelley’s Grandmother was Elizabeth Dixon of Main Street, Ballyshannon. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818.
Recent research has revealed that Bram Stoker’s ancestors lived in Ballyshannon. His grandfather, Lieutenant Thomas Thornley, 43rd Regiment, married Matilda Blake in St. Anne’s Church on 3rd October, 1817.
They moved to Sligo and returned to Ballyshannon in 1832 to escape from the cholera plague, which killed five eighths of the population of Sligo. All along the way large crowds angrily tried to repel travellers from Sligo but the Thornleys managed to smuggle into their cousins’ house on the Mall.
After a medical examination, they were allowed to stay but were kept in quarantine for a while. It is claimed that Charlotte Thornley’s account of the cholera plague in Sligo and the desperate coach journey to Ballyshannon influenced her son Bram Stoker when he wrote the classic gothic horror novel Dracula in 1897.
Bram Stoker 1847 – 1912
Mary Shelley 1797 – 1851