POETRY AND TRUTH

"The Heirs of the Night" is not only a fantastic novel series about vampires, but also a journey through the Europe of the 19th century with its people and its history, in which my readers should immerse themselves in the past world. It is important to me to provide brief insights into the history of the country, politics, art, and the state of the sciences with their new inventions at that time, be it medicine, architecture, or the technology of new machines. Many people appear who actually existed. Men and women of politics, science, but also artists, whose works of music, painting, or literature still influence us today. I also describe the places as they probably looked at the end of the 19th century.

I have traveled through Ireland and have seen the fascinating landscapes: the Connemara bogs, the Burren, Giant's Causeway, and the numerous castles, which are the settings for Lycana's history. Some are now only ruins like Dunluce, others are still preserved or rebuilt, such as Rockfleet, Aughnanure, or Dunguaire. I have been to the caves of Aillwee and descended into the shafts of the Glengowla mine. (I also stayed at Ashford Castle for a few days. Not bad what the beer baron Guinness has built there. However, Oscar Wilde was not impressed by the gardens at that time and disdainfully recommended to the lady of the house to plant a petunia bed in the shape of a pig. Even that would beautify the garden.)

They were wonderful journeys through Ireland, and I could almost feel how the history of my vampires developed. Yes, when you're traveling in these lonely landscapes, especially at night, you can feel that they could actually exist...

Gatstars

The Wilde Family - Poets and Rebels

Oscar Wilde's family was always closely connected to literature. An uncle wrote the gothic novel "Melmoth the Wanderer," his mother wrote political articles for the newspaper, and his brother also worked as a journalist and rather unsuccessful poet. His father published numerous scientific works. He had many interests and was considered a meticulous researcher. A sign on the former Wilde family home on Merrion Square calls him "Ear and Eye Surgeon, Archaeologist, Biographer, Ethnologist, Antiquarian, Statistician, Natural Scientist, Historian, and Folklorist." Thus, his writings are thematically wide-ranging. Among other things, he published an archaeological guide for which his sons sketched Celtic sites in western Ireland. William Wilde traveled a lot, especially the antiquities of Egypt fascinated him. He spent his holidays with the family often in the west of Ireland, where he acquired land at Lough Corrib, and Oscar loved the wild landscape of Connemara with its colors and the play of light and shadow.

William Wilde was one of Europe's best physicians and was consulted by the Queen herself. He invented the stethoscope and founded a hospital for the indigent. Before he met Jane Elgee, he fathered three illegitimate children. His two daughters grew up with his older brother and tragically died as young women. One of them caught fire to her ball gown when she got too close to the fireplace. Her sister tried to help her and burned with her.

While William Wilde is described as medium-sized and rather unremarkable, his wife Jane Elgee was a striking personality. Very tall, slim in her youth, later massive, with thick black hair, she always dressed in a way that silenced people when she entered the room. She openly represented her nationalist sentiments for Ireland, and when she visited the salons of the royal court, she used clothes and accessories as a political statement. However, she wrote her stirring newspaper articles under the pseudonym "Speranza." She was the "voice of freedom" and briefly led the nation when the publisher was arrested. Otherwise, she lived on translations before her marriage.

Lady Wilde loved to surround herself with witty personalities. Her literary salons on Merrion Square were famous and well attended. But being a wife, mother, and hostess was not enough for her, so she competed with her husband and sons for publications throughout her life.

The eldest son of the Wildes, Willie, was outstripped by his younger brother Oscar already in the first years of school, who stood out mainly for his eloquence. Willie lived his whole life in the shadow of his more brilliant brother. He remained unmarried, made a living as a journalist, and most of the time lived with his mother, even when she moved to London after the magnificent house in Dublin had to be sold due to high debts.

Now to Oscar. What can I say about him in brief? A friend from his youth described him as "a sturdy, tall fellow with a broad white face, well-shaped red lips, and long black curls that fell somewhat boorishly onto his noble forehead." Oscar Wilde loved to deliver witty speeches in company, preferred to listen to his own poems, and considered ambition and selfishness to be the same thing. Wilde considered himself highly gifted. He did not want to end up as a withered Oxford lecturer. "I will become a poet, a writer, and a playwright," he prophesied. In his early years, he did not publish much except for a book of poems. He preferred to talk, polish his aphorisms, and be admired. Money was not important to him. It became a lifelong habit to have debts. He was a young snob who kept himself afloat with the fees from his lecture tours on aesthetics and his wife's money. Only later did he put plays on stage, write stories, debates, essays, fairy tales, and a novel, and for a few years, he edited a women's magazine. However, that remained the only steady job he ever had.

Much could be written about him, his relationship with art, his life in London and Paris, his wife and children, his patrons and students, his inclination towards young men, which landed him in prison, but I'll leave it with a self-assessment of Wilde's, which he noted in a questionnaire during his lecture tour in America:

The most beautiful word in the world?

Excellent!

The worst word?

Failed!

Favorite activity?

Reading my own sonnets.

Character traits he despises?

Vanity, pride, self-aggrandizement.

Character traits he values?

The gift of finding friends.

His most pronounced character trait?

Tremendous arrogance.

If he were not himself, what would he want to be?

A Catholic cardinal.

His idea of happiness?

Absolute power over the souls of men, even if it gives you toothache.

His life goal?

Success, fame, or even just sad celebrity.

Robert Emmet and Anne Devlin - Rebels and Martyrs

Robert Emmet came from a wealthy Protestant family. His father was a respected doctor and responsible for the members of the British royal family on their travels. During his studies at Trinity College in Dublin, Emmet came into contact with the patriotic United Irishmen, who fought for an independent Ireland, and joined them. When the rebels were defeated in 1798 under Theobald Wolfe Tone, he went into exile in France. He joined the Irish delegation that sought to win Napoleon for their cause, but he made peace with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

In 1803, Robert Emmet returned to Ireland with other revolutionaries to lead another rebellion. Anne

 Devlin, the niece of the rebel leader Michael Dwyer, worked as a housekeeper for Emmet. She was of his age and loyal to him and his ideals.

The uprising broke out too early and was poorly organized. They unsuccessfully tried to capture Dublin Castle. During the riots, the Chief Justice of Ireland was murdered. Emmet fled and went into hiding. Anne held the fort and passed on secret messages to the insurgents. But then she was arrested and imprisoned. Even under torture, she remained silent. Nevertheless, Robert Emmet and some of his friends were soon captured and sentenced to death for treason. After the verdict, Emmet gave the recorded speech: "Let no one make my epitaph, for no one who knows my motives would dare to justify them now... If my country has taken its place among the nations of the earth, then, and only then, will my person be justified. Then my gravestone can receive an inscription: I am finished."

The next day he was taken to the place of his execution. Twice the executioner asked him if he was ready. Emmet answered "No". Before he could answer a third time, he was hanged, his body then removed and beheaded. The executioner showed the head to the crowd. "This is the head of the traitor Robert Emmet."

Anne Devlin remained imprisoned for two years, but she did not give the authorities any information about the rebels she associated with. It is said that she died in poverty in Dublin in 1851.

The Pirate Grace O'Malley - A Feisty Woman

Gráinne Ní Mháille, known as Granuaile, was born in 1530 on Clare Island in the west of Ireland as the daughter of an Irish clan leader - incidentally in the same year as Queen Elizabeth I. Piracy was a common trade in this area at that time. Since the clans were constantly threatened from both land and sea. Granuaile learned besides the usual things a girl had to know at that time, also Latin, to be able to read the writings of navigation theory and to sail with her father. The mother was against it. Her daughter, with her black locks, couldn't become a sailor! So Granuaile cut off her hair and went to sea to learn navigation.

At sixteen, she married the leader of the O'Flaherty clan, who had been sitting at Aughnanure Castle since the beginning of the 16th century. Her husband squandered the family's fortune in numerous battles and was then slain by hostile clan members. Granuaile took over the defense of the castle and the lands. She managed to successfully defend herself against the advancing English, gaining a large following. However, as a woman, she could not succeed her husband, so she returned to Clare Island - with a large following. She married a second time, had a total of four sons, and various lovers.

Like her ancestors, she began trading and undertook raids, plundering ships and coastal towns. Her following and success soon grew so large that she drew the wrath of Queen Elizabeth. The Queen sent her governor from Galway to take massive action against the pirate, but Granuaile repeatedly managed to evade him and his troops. In 1578, however, she fell into his hands and was imprisoned, but she escaped from her dungeon two years later. Granuaile turned the tables and appealed directly to Queen Elizabeth with a petition. She defended piracy as the only way for her people to survive and offered the Queen to "fight with sword and fire" all of England's enemies for the rest of her life.

To free her sons, she - now sixty years old - traveled to England and was granted an audience. Barefoot and with her head held high, she stood before the Queen, who was so impressed that she released Granuaile's sons from custody and granted her a pension herself. Both sons were made clan leaders according to English law and were allowed to continue their raids under the English flag.

Granuaile died in 1603 - as did Queen Elizabeth I. Of her numerous castles, Rockfleet still stands on the edge of Clew Bay.

Oliver Cromwell - A Great and Cruel Commander

When asked who Oliver Cromwell was, the answer can vary greatly depending on whether you speak to an Englishman or an Irishman. For some, he was a great military leader, for others, a cruel slaughterer. In an early version of Lycana - The Heirs of the Night, there was a dialogue between Ivy and Malcolm, who represent these contrasting views:

"Oliver Cromwell was one of the cruelest English military leaders ever to plague Ireland," said Ivy.

"And also one of the most successful when it came to bringing the rebellious Irish to their knees, you must not overlook that!" Malcolm interjected.

"It was the time of the English King Charles I, who was married to a Catholic," Ivy continued. "That gave wings to Irish hopes. Anyway, Charles came into conflict with the English Parliament, and it led to a civil war in England and Scotland, at the end of which Charles was executed by the English Parliament. Instead of the Anglicans, the Puritan forces now had power - and they lost no time in forcing Catholic Ireland to its knees. For this, they sent us Oliver Cromwell with an army of twenty thousand men."

"You forgot one little thing," Malcolm interjected. "Ireland tried to exploit the situation! England and Scotland were embroiled in their civil war and had no time to deal with the rebellious neighbor. And so the Irish thought the time for a rebellion had come. They wanted to get rid of the Puritan Lord Justice and his Parliament in Dublin, take the seat of government and the armories, but as usual, they failed due to betrayal from within their own ranks. Nevertheless, they continued to try, and even killed twelve thousand Protestants in a terrible massacre in Portadown! The rebellion expanded, and even the long-established English settlers sided with the Irish! So, Cromwell's dispatch was an absolutely necessary act of defense to rein in the Irish and punish them!"

"Thank you for that addition," Ivy said coolly. "Immediately after Charles' execution, Cromwell landed with his men in Ireland. In the north, he besieged the city of Drogheda, and since it did not surrender to him immediately, he ordered it to be stormed. As a warning, he had all Irish soldiers he could get hold of

, and most of the citizens, massacred. Then he marched south and took Wexford. Again, he had the population of the city slaughtered. Horrified, the other cities surrendered as soon as they saw his army."

"The rebellion was over, thanks to his strong hand!" Malcolm continued. "Cromwell defeated the Catholics in Ireland, the Presbyterians in Scotland, and the Royalists in England. He was now the most powerful man in England. The time of the Republic began, which lasted until his death. Only then was the son of the executed king crowned as Charles II."

Malcolm fell silent, and Ivy took over again. "When Cromwell turned his back on Ireland, he left behind a deathly silence. Rebellion and war had lasted for ten years and destroyed the sparse prosperity the Irish had built up laboriously. Everywhere, the plague broke out, armies of beggars roamed the land, hungry wolves penetrated into the cities."

But what do the biographers say about him?

He was the founder of the English Republic and ruled as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Cromwell was born in 1599 as the son of a country gentleman. During his studies, he came into contact with the idea of Puritanism but only joined it in 1628 when he became a Member of Parliament. When the king convened Parliament in 1640 after many years of ruling without it to raise taxes for a war against Scotland, Cromwell joined the king's opponents. The king's attempt to subdue the leaders of the opposition in the House of Commons failed and triggered two civil wars. Cromwell led the parliamentary army against the royalists. After his victory in the second civil war, the king was sentenced to death and executed. The republic was proclaimed under Cromwell's leadership.

The war also took place on Irish soil, where Cromwell's troops used a massacre tactic against the population. The murder of 3,500 inhabitants of Drogheda - loyalist soldiers, civilians, prisoners, and Catholic priests - after the capture of the city still burdens the English-Irish relationship today. Cromwell considered the order to massacre justified because the defenders of the city had continued to fight beyond the fallen walls contrary to the applicable laws of war. After the war, Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector until he died of malaria in 1658. He declined the offered kingship. After his death, England returned to monarchy and crowned Charles II, the son of the executed king, in 1660.

By the way, three years after his death, Cromwell was posthumously convicted of crimes against the monarchy, his body was exhumed and beheaded, and his head was impaled and put on display.