In the U.S., we tend to associate Dracula and vampires with the Halloween holiday. But in Dublin, Dracula was once also synonymous with St. Patrick’s Day—all thanks to a local legend named Patrick Finlay, better known as ‘Paddy Drac.’
Patrick Finlay was a Dracula impersonator who got his start after a man in a pub commented that he looked like Dracula. A friend printed up cards as a joke with the name “Count Paddy Drac.” After the cards made their rounds, Finlay received a call from a local travel agent asking if he would dress up like Dracula in a promotion to sell trips to Transylvania. Finlay signed on, and Paddy Drac was born.
From Undertaker to Undead
But Paddy Drac wouldn’t become associated with St. Patrick’s Day until 1968, when he made his first appearance in the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day parade. Finlay was performing at a dinner show that year and decided to sneak into the parade wearing his homemade cloak and improvised fangs. He was so well-loved by the crowd that he was invited back the following year and would return every year through 2018.
There were only two instances in which Finlay almost didn’t appear in the parade. In 2016, after falling ill, and in 2017, when his entrance to the parade was temporarily denied due to security clearance.
When not appearing as Paddy Drac, Finlay worked as an undertaker for a chain of Dublin funeral homes, a fitting career for a man who moonlit as a vampire.
A Vampire with a Heart of Gold
Over the years, Finlay used his celebrity not only to entertain the masses during the parade but to benefit children with special needs. His decades of charity work earned “hundreds of thousands” of dollars for children’s charity and earned Finlay a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Tallaght Person of the Year Awards in 2016. Finlay also earned a spot as Grand Marshall in the 2017 Dublin Taxi Drivers Special Children’s Outing, an event Finlay has been involved with since the ’60s.
In 2018, Finlay was recognized by the Dublin City Council Culture Company as a Local Hero for his contributions to the community and was recognized in song with an ode to Paddy Drac by songwriters The Pale.
In 2019, Finlay would miss the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day parade for the first time in 50 years. His absence due to a bout with cancer, a battle he sadly lost at the age of 74. In April 2019, Finlay was laid to rest in what would be his 26th and final coffin. Finlay joked in a 2018 interview, “I am the only person alive who has been through 24 coffins. Not many people can say I am on my 25th.”
Immortalized in Dublin
Following his passing, Paddy Drac was immortalized by Dublin firefighter Geoff Tracey as part of the Dublin Canvas project. The project is intended to add splashes of color and creativity to otherwise mundane objects throughout the city. Through it, Paddy Drac’s likeness now graces the side of a traffic light control box pointed toward the performer’s home in Bawnville. Painted in July of 2019, the front of the box features the famous volunteering vampire, and on the back, a tombstone painted with Paddy Drac’s name and lyrics to Bobby Boris Pickett’s “Monster Mash.”
Announcing the completion of his work on Facebook, Geoff wrote: “So here it is, a tribute to a Dublin legend, a selfless man who did Trojan work for the community and frightened the sh*te out of thousands along the way.”
Years after his final parade, the image of Paddy Drac still reminds us that even the darkest creatures can bring a community together.
The legacy of Dublin’s St. Patrick’s Day vampire lives on in the contributions Paddy Drac made to his community and the joyful memories he brought audiences, young and old, as he made his way down the parade route, posing for photos and greeting his fans.
