Introducing
The Hotel Waiter with The Holy Water

Alois Hitler, Jnr the older half-brother of Adolf Hitler, spent some months in the latter half of 1909 working in Dublin’s premier hotel – The Shelbourne. From Dublin he eloped with a teenage Dublin girl, Bridget Dowling, ten years his junior, to Liverpool. Surprisingly, there has been very little attention paid to this fascinating historical detail.

This darkly comic novel focuses on the elder Hitler’s short time in Dublin. It is based on the few facts known to us – that in his spare time from work in The Shelbourne, he liked to gallivant around Dublin while posing as a Hotel Consultant. A con-artist, in fact. And that he first encountered Bridget Dowling at the Royal Dublin Horse Show in Ballsbridge. As well as the fact that they had their first date in The National Gallery, Merrion Square. Among the celebrities whose brief presence in Dublin in 1909 coincided with the longer stay of Alois Hitler, Jnr, were Enrico Caruso, Ernest Shackleton (who stayed in The Shelbourne) and James Joyce who set up the first motion picture house in Dublin in December 1909, called the Volta. Each is rewarded with a walk-on part and one even with a small talking part as well.

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