A recording of the ambient sounds in the forest above Macredddin in County Wicklow. The conifer woods are regarded by many walkers as quiet and bereft of life. It's certainly not true here.

Macreddin Woods

Was Sherlock Holmes Irish? an audio documentary first broadcast on Newstalk Radio in Ireland investigates the numerous Irish connections of Sherlock Holmes, and asks why the detective is as popular as ever.

Sherlock Holmes’s success is simply extraordinary. His enduring popularity is unrivalled by any other fictional character. 

The first collection of Holmes stories – the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes has sold more than 60 million copies since it was published in 1892, and Holmes has been played on screen by more different actors than any other fictional creation. Sherlock, the enormously successful BBC adaptation, which saw the detective stories transposed to contemporary Britain, has just finished its fourth season.

In Was Sherlock Holmes Irish?, Luke McManus tracks the Irish roots of this remarkable creation, first by looking at the family background of author Arthur Conan Doyle, and then visiting Edinburgh to meet with Doyle’s biographer, Professor Owen Dudley Edwards who has theories on the Irish origins of the names of both Professor Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes himself.

The trail then leads to Cork, where Professor Des McHale is convinced that one of his academic predecessors at UCC was the model for Moriarty himself.

The documentary then examines the reasons for Holmes’s incredible popularity, with contributions from Prof. Clare Clarke of Trinity College Dublin, silent film expert Rob Byrne, Colm McCarthy, a television director of BBC’s Sherlock series and Prof. Barry McCrea of Notre Dame University.

Extracts from the Sherlock Holmes stories and Arthur Conan Doyle's autobiography Memories And Adventures read by Damien Devaney. Luke Clancy was the consulting editor, Conor Lonergan mixed the sound. Commissioning editor was Francesca Lalor.

Lukem