Historian puts out call for kids to join monthly history book club

“There’s two characters in it, there is Molly Malone and Bram Stoker,” says historian Dervilia Roche, holding up a book and flicking the pages. “Do you know who they are?”

It is Saturday afternoon in Richmond Barracks in Inchicore at the children’s historical book club.

And Roche, Sean Bruton Postigo (12) and Amelia McCarthy (11) are talking about life in Dublin in the mid-18th century.

“Molly Malone is a fictional character and there is an old rhyme about fish,” says Amelia. “And Bram Stoker is the author of Dracula, I’m pretty sure.”

The book being held up is this month’s read: Alan Nolan’s Molly Malone & Bram Stoker in Double Trouble at the Dead Zoo.

In the book, the pair are friends who go on adventure – a kind of treasure hunt – in Dublin city centre, she says.

Roche is historian-in-residence for children with Dublin City Council Culture Company and Dublin City Libraries. She projects images of Bram Stoker and the original Dracula onto the screen.

“Do you know what Dracula is about?” she asks. Amelia and Sean both nod.

“Vampires,” says Amelia, who has long brown hair and wears a black hoodie. They are sitting on blue chairs around two big white tables. Light pours through the stained glass giving the room a pink tinge.

Amelia liked the book but she wants to know why there are no seagulls in it, since it’s based in Dublin city centre. She can’t imagine there was ever a time when flocks of seagulls didn’t rule the city.

Roche says she can ask the author that question if she comes to another event that’s on in October. “We’re actually going to get him to do a special event with us in a few months as part of the Dublin Festival of History,” she says.

Roche’s job is about creating connections for children with history, bringing it to life, through workshops, museum visits and other events and activities, she says later.

“I try to make my work very responsive based on what children are telling me they want,” she says. “One of the things I realised very early on was that a lot of kids connect with history through reading fiction.”

The book clubs used to attract 10 to 15 young people each time, but some regulars have moved on, so Roche is putting a call out for more history buffs, aged 8 to 12, to join up

“Fictional history books are a gateway into history for kids,” she says.

Bringing history to life

“When you read Dracula, it’s written as if it was diary entries,” says Roche. That’s reflected in Nolan’s book too, as the Bram Stoker character also keeps a diary, she says.

“Do we recognise this street?” Roche asks, pointing up at the screen, at an image of what O’Connell Street would have looked like in the mid-18th century.

It was called Sackville Street back then, she says. “It looks a bit different now.”

“That’s what a taxi would have looked like,” says Roche, pointing to another picture of a horse and cart.

Amelia asks when the first cars appeared on Dublin’s streets. In the early 20th century, says Roche. So, well after the era of Bram Stoker and Molly Malone.

Some of the characters in the book lived in tenements, she says. Do Amelia and Sean know what a tenement is?

“Kind of like a room, in an old house, they don’t really exist anymore,” says Amelia, looking at the desk. Or at least not in Ireland, she muses, although there could be housing like that still, in other places.

“They’re big houses that were originally built for one family to have the whole house in Georgian times. Probably quite rich families,” says Roche. “Then they were changed into little apartments, really small spaces, not very nice living conditions,”

Amelia says she wants to visit the tenement museum in Henrietta Street.

“That’s the other place I work, full disclosure,” says Roche.

Roche asks if Sean has been there. He shakes his head – no. They could organise a visit another day, she says.

Then it’s back to discussing the book.

“They kind of go on a treasure hunt don’t they, they are trying to find clues around the city,” says Roche. Next slide shows the Old Library in Trinity.

Sean says he’s been there. “It kind of looks old because there are statues,” he says. He loves historical tours, castles, museums and old buildings.

Amelia says the Trinity library is on her to-do list. She wants to visit the Book of Kells, she says.

“One of the biggest mysteries in Irish history was the Irish crown jewels,” says Roche. “They were stored in that building which is Dublin Castle,” she says, pointing to the screen.

The valuable jewels were stolen in 1907, she says. “They were never recovered and no one knows where they are or how much they would be worth,” she says. “That’s a true mystery.”

What’s next?

The monthly book club is just one of the historical activities that Roche organises for kids, she says.

Together with illustrator John Farrelly, she put together a self-guided hidden histories treasure hunt.

She runs regular workshops. Amelia was at a recent one on ancient animals of Ireland.

Children are often interested in the built heritage of their own areas too, says Roche.

She recently did a workshop in Coolock library, she says. Some of the children said that they thought their area didn’t have any history and were delighted to hear stories of their own neighbourhoods.

Roche passes around Sarah Webb’s new book The Weather Girls, historical fiction set during World War II.

Sean says he is interested in the Aztecs and Cleopatra. Roche says she’ll look for fiction with those.

Roche plugs the upcoming event with Nolan, the author, as an opportunity to ask questions about the book, being an author, as well as the history of the time when his book is set.

Would they like to ask him anything about life as an author?

“Where does he work?” says Sean.

“What snacks does he eat while writing?” says Amelia.

To get involved in the book club email Dervilia Roche at residency@dublincitycouncilculturecompany.ie.