As I Was Going Down Sackville Street
Encyclopedia
As I Was Going Down Sackville Street: A Phantasy in Fact is a book by Oliver St. John Gogarty
. Published in 1937, it was Gogarty's first extended prose work and was described by its author as "something new in form: neither a 'memoir' nor a novel". Its title is taken from an obscure Dublin ballad
of the same name, which was "rescued from oblivion and obloquy" by Gogarty's erstwhile friend James Joyce
, who recited it for Gogarty in 1904 after hearing it in inner city Dublin.
The book features many of Gogarty's Dublin acquaintances and well-known contemporaries (including W.B. Yeats, James Joyce
, Michael Collins
, Arthur Griffith
, Æ
, and George Moore
) as characters. Shortly after its publication, it became the subject of a highly-publicized libel lawsuit.
from the perspective of Oliver Gogarty. Unlike a conventional memoir
, however, the book deals little with events in Gogarty's personal or professional life, instead using his persona as a vehicle for encountering and describing the geography and chief inhabitants of 20th-century Dublin. In writing Sackville Street, Gogarty sought to give "past and present the same value in time"; thus, while the first-person
narrative is continuous and appears to occupy a compact chronological space, the events detailed span the years 1904-1932. Gogarty also rearranged events into (approximately) reverse chronological order, beginning with life in the Irish Free State
and moving backwards through the Irish Civil War
, the Irish War of Independence
, and, finally, colonial Ireland
. This structure was intended to loosely recall that of Dante
's Divine Comedy, with the Dublin of the mid 1920s-1930s standing for Inferno, the Dublin of the 1910s-1920s for Purgatio, and turn-of-the-century Dublin for Paradisio.
The tone of the book is predominately anecdotal and conversational; much of its action consists of lively accounts of dinner parties, luncheons, "at-homes", pub conversations, and chance meetings, allowing Gogarty to draw vivid portraits of his contemporaries by reproducing their speech patterns and characteristic social interactions. Gogarty also frequently embarks on humorous, rambling narrative monologues, pertaining to other characters, to the landscape, and to various salient issues of the time. While not strictly polemical, As I Was Going Down Sackville Street is notable for its political overtones, expressed in both Gogarty's monologues and in the speeches he places in the mouths of other characters. As a Catholic
with strong intellectual and personal ties to the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy
, a founding member of Sinn Féin
with a deep devotion to Arthur Griffith
, and a Free State Senator
who had suffered kidnapping and arson at the hands of IRA
gunmen, Gogarty's political identity was complex and idiosyncratic, and in his book he gave frequent vent to his animosity towards Éamon de Valera
and his disillusionment with Irish
politics.
, James Joyce
, W.B. Yeats, George Moore
, Lord Dunsany, Seumas O'Sullivan (as "Neil"), Æ
, Robert Yelverton Tyrrell
, John Pentland Mahaffy
, Arthur Griffith
, Michael Collins
, and Horace Plunkett.
One of the most frequently-recurring figures in the book is that of Endymion, a Dublin eccentric, who prominently features in the opening and closing scenes and appears at intervals throughout the text. Gogarty critic James F. Carens has argued that the character of Endymion, a genial madman who has adjusted "Reason to the phantasmagoria of Life", can be read both as an embodiment of the city of Dublin and as a parody or simulacrum of Gogarty himself.
The plaintiff claimed that he and his brother (who had heard of the book's contents shortly before his death) were slanderously characterized as lechers and usurers, and could be recognized in the first set of verses by the name "Willie" (a reference to William Sinclair) and the mention of gaiters
(which Harry Sinclair was apparently known to wear). Harry Sinclair further identified himself and his brother as the "twin grandchildren" in the second passage based on the description of their grandfather as a "pursuer of the immature", and submitted papers to the court to prove that his own grandfather had in fact been guilty of the same offense.
The case attracted a great deal of public attention, with one commentator observing that "only The Pickwick Papers
, rewritten by James Joyce
, could really capture the mood of this trial." Various witnesses were called by both sides, some claiming to have instantly recognized the Sinclair siblings from the description in the text, others claiming to have made no such connection; some witnesses also claimed that William Sinclair had immediately threatened to sue Gogarty upon first hearing of the verses, while others recalled that Gogarty had occasionally recited them in William Sinclair's presence without protest from him. Appearing as a "publication witness" for the prosecution was Samuel Beckett
, then a little-known writer, whose impartiality was called into question based on his familial relationship to the plaintiff (his aunt had been married to William Sinclair) and who was humiliatingly denounced by Gogarty's counsel as "the bawd and blasphemer from Paris". Gogarty, put on the stand, alleged that the unnamed Jews of the verses were parodies or composite characters rather than deliberate evocations of living persons, and were intended to throw discredit on the practice of usury
and moneylending generally.
Gogarty ultimately lost the lawsuit and was ordered to pay IR£900 in damages, plus court costs; the total cost to him was £2,000 (equivalent to well over €100,000 in 2010 terms). This outcome deeply embittered Gogarty, who had already suffered financial setbacks after the Great Depression
and felt that the trial had been politically motivated.
Gogarty's critics differ over the extent to which the language of the offending passages can be attributed to anti-Semitism
. Biographer J.B. Lyons
alleges that Gogarty, though often sharp-tongued with respect to the Sinclair siblings, was not actually an anti-Semite, citing the evidence of his friendships with other Dublin Jews. James Carens observes that anti-Semitic remarks are present in Gogarty's early journalism and in his private correspondence, but upholds Gogarty's claim that usury
and child molestation, not Jews or Judaism, were the intended targets of satire in Sackville Street.
critic Sighle Kennedy has argued that Gogarty's portrayal of the lunatic Endymion in As I Was Going Down Sackville Street influenced Beckett
's novel Murphy
, which was published just two years after Beckett
had first read Gogarty's book in connection with the Sinclair trial.
Oliver St. John Gogarty
Oliver Joseph St John Gogarty was an Irish poet, author, otolaryngologist, athlete, politician, and well-known conversationalist, who served as the inspiration for Buck Mulligan in James Joyce's novel Ulysses....
. Published in 1937, it was Gogarty's first extended prose work and was described by its author as "something new in form: neither a 'memoir' nor a novel". Its title is taken from an obscure Dublin ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
of the same name, which was "rescued from oblivion and obloquy" by Gogarty's erstwhile friend James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
, who recited it for Gogarty in 1904 after hearing it in inner city Dublin.
The book features many of Gogarty's Dublin acquaintances and well-known contemporaries (including W.B. Yeats, James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
, Michael Collins
Michael Collins (Irish leader)
Michael "Mick" Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and Teachta Dála for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the...
, Arthur Griffith
Arthur Griffith
Arthur Griffith was the founder and third leader of Sinn Féin. He served as President of Dáil Éireann from January to August 1922, and was head of the Irish delegation at the negotiations in London that produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.-Early life:...
, Æ
George William Russell
George William Russell who wrote under the pseudonym Æ , was an Irish nationalist, writer, editor, critic, poet, and painter. He was also a mystical writer, and centre of a group of followers of theosophy in Dublin, for many years.-Organisor:Russell was born in Lurgan, County Armagh...
, and George Moore
George Moore (novelist)
George Augustus Moore was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Moore came from a Roman Catholic landed family who lived at Moore Hall in Carra, County Mayo. He originally wanted to be a painter, and studied art in Paris during the 1870s...
) as characters. Shortly after its publication, it became the subject of a highly-publicized libel lawsuit.
Literary Style
As I Was Going Down Sackville Street is told in the first personFirst-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...
from the perspective of Oliver Gogarty. Unlike a conventional memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
, however, the book deals little with events in Gogarty's personal or professional life, instead using his persona as a vehicle for encountering and describing the geography and chief inhabitants of 20th-century Dublin. In writing Sackville Street, Gogarty sought to give "past and present the same value in time"; thus, while the first-person
First-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...
narrative is continuous and appears to occupy a compact chronological space, the events detailed span the years 1904-1932. Gogarty also rearranged events into (approximately) reverse chronological order, beginning with life in the Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
and moving backwards through the Irish Civil War
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
, the Irish War of Independence
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
, and, finally, colonial Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. This structure was intended to loosely recall that of Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
's Divine Comedy, with the Dublin of the mid 1920s-1930s standing for Inferno, the Dublin of the 1910s-1920s for Purgatio, and turn-of-the-century Dublin for Paradisio.
The tone of the book is predominately anecdotal and conversational; much of its action consists of lively accounts of dinner parties, luncheons, "at-homes", pub conversations, and chance meetings, allowing Gogarty to draw vivid portraits of his contemporaries by reproducing their speech patterns and characteristic social interactions. Gogarty also frequently embarks on humorous, rambling narrative monologues, pertaining to other characters, to the landscape, and to various salient issues of the time. While not strictly polemical, As I Was Going Down Sackville Street is notable for its political overtones, expressed in both Gogarty's monologues and in the speeches he places in the mouths of other characters. As a Catholic
Irish Catholic
Irish Catholic is a term used to describe people who are both Roman Catholic and Irish .Note: the term is not used to describe a variant of Catholicism. More particularly, it is not a separate creed or sect in the sense that "Anglo-Catholic", "Old Catholic", "Eastern Orthodox Catholic" might be...
with strong intellectual and personal ties to the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy
Protestant Ascendancy
The Protestant Ascendancy, usually known in Ireland simply as the Ascendancy, is a phrase used when referring to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by a minority of great landowners, Protestant clergy, and professionals, all members of the Established Church during the 17th...
, a founding member of Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
with a deep devotion to Arthur Griffith
Arthur Griffith
Arthur Griffith was the founder and third leader of Sinn Féin. He served as President of Dáil Éireann from January to August 1922, and was head of the Irish delegation at the negotiations in London that produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.-Early life:...
, and a Free State Senator
Seanad Éireann
Seanad Éireann is the upper house of the Oireachtas , which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann . It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its members Senators or Seanadóirí . Unlike Dáil Éireann, it is not directly elected but consists of a mixture of members chosen by...
who had suffered kidnapping and arson at the hands of IRA
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
gunmen, Gogarty's political identity was complex and idiosyncratic, and in his book he gave frequent vent to his animosity towards Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...
and his disillusionment with Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
politics.
Characters
As I Was Going Down Sackville Street opens with the disclaimer "The names in this book are real, the characters fictitious", and a number of notable figures make appearances in its pages, including Eoin O'DuffyEoin O'Duffy
Eoin O'Duffy was in succession a Teachta Dála , the Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army , the second Commissioner of the Garda Síochána, leader of the Army Comrades Association and then the first leader of Fine Gael , before leading the Irish Brigade to fight for Francisco Franco during...
, James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
, W.B. Yeats, George Moore
George Moore (novelist)
George Augustus Moore was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Moore came from a Roman Catholic landed family who lived at Moore Hall in Carra, County Mayo. He originally wanted to be a painter, and studied art in Paris during the 1870s...
, Lord Dunsany, Seumas O'Sullivan (as "Neil"), Æ
George William Russell
George William Russell who wrote under the pseudonym Æ , was an Irish nationalist, writer, editor, critic, poet, and painter. He was also a mystical writer, and centre of a group of followers of theosophy in Dublin, for many years.-Organisor:Russell was born in Lurgan, County Armagh...
, Robert Yelverton Tyrrell
Robert Yelverton Tyrrell
Robert Yelverton Tyrrell was an Irish classical scholar who was Regius Professor of Greek at Trinity College, Dublin.-Biography:...
, John Pentland Mahaffy
John Pentland Mahaffy
The Rev. John Pentland Mahaffy GBE CVO was an Irish classicist and polymathic scholar.-Education and interests:...
, Arthur Griffith
Arthur Griffith
Arthur Griffith was the founder and third leader of Sinn Féin. He served as President of Dáil Éireann from January to August 1922, and was head of the Irish delegation at the negotiations in London that produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.-Early life:...
, Michael Collins
Michael Collins (Irish leader)
Michael "Mick" Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and Teachta Dála for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the...
, and Horace Plunkett.
One of the most frequently-recurring figures in the book is that of Endymion, a Dublin eccentric, who prominently features in the opening and closing scenes and appears at intervals throughout the text. Gogarty critic James F. Carens has argued that the character of Endymion, a genial madman who has adjusted "Reason to the phantasmagoria of Life", can be read both as an embodiment of the city of Dublin and as a parody or simulacrum of Gogarty himself.
Libel lawsuit
As I Was Going Down Sackville Street was highly-anticipated before its publication as "a riposte to Ulysses and an appendage to [George Moore's] Ave, Salve, Vale", and as a result of its popularity became the subject a lawsuit brought forth by Harry Sinclair, a Jewish art dealer, who said that two passages in the book contained libels against himself and his recently-deceased twin brother, William Sinclair. These consisted of verses written by Gogarty's friend, George Redding, and prose commentary by Gogarty:The plaintiff claimed that he and his brother (who had heard of the book's contents shortly before his death) were slanderously characterized as lechers and usurers, and could be recognized in the first set of verses by the name "Willie" (a reference to William Sinclair) and the mention of gaiters
Gaiters
Gaiters are garments worn over the shoe and lower pant leg, and used primarily as personal protective equipment; similar garments used primarily for display are spats....
(which Harry Sinclair was apparently known to wear). Harry Sinclair further identified himself and his brother as the "twin grandchildren" in the second passage based on the description of their grandfather as a "pursuer of the immature", and submitted papers to the court to prove that his own grandfather had in fact been guilty of the same offense.
The case attracted a great deal of public attention, with one commentator observing that "only The Pickwick Papers
The Pickwick Papers
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is the first novel by Charles Dickens. After the publication, the widow of the illustrator Robert Seymour claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any...
, rewritten by James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
, could really capture the mood of this trial." Various witnesses were called by both sides, some claiming to have instantly recognized the Sinclair siblings from the description in the text, others claiming to have made no such connection; some witnesses also claimed that William Sinclair had immediately threatened to sue Gogarty upon first hearing of the verses, while others recalled that Gogarty had occasionally recited them in William Sinclair's presence without protest from him. Appearing as a "publication witness" for the prosecution was Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, then a little-known writer, whose impartiality was called into question based on his familial relationship to the plaintiff (his aunt had been married to William Sinclair) and who was humiliatingly denounced by Gogarty's counsel as "the bawd and blasphemer from Paris". Gogarty, put on the stand, alleged that the unnamed Jews of the verses were parodies or composite characters rather than deliberate evocations of living persons, and were intended to throw discredit on the practice of usury
Usury
Usury Originally, when the charging of interest was still banned by Christian churches, usury simply meant the charging of interest at any rate . In countries where the charging of interest became acceptable, the term came to be used for interest above the rate allowed by law...
and moneylending generally.
Gogarty ultimately lost the lawsuit and was ordered to pay IR£900 in damages, plus court costs; the total cost to him was £2,000 (equivalent to well over €100,000 in 2010 terms). This outcome deeply embittered Gogarty, who had already suffered financial setbacks after the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and felt that the trial had been politically motivated.
Gogarty's critics differ over the extent to which the language of the offending passages can be attributed to anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
. Biographer J.B. Lyons
J.B. Lyons
John Benignus Lyons , better known as J. B. Lyons and widely known as Jack Lyons, was an Irish medical historian, writer, physician and professor of medicial history. He was described as "one of the foremost Irish medical writers of the twentieth century".Born in Kilkelly, County Mayo, his father...
alleges that Gogarty, though often sharp-tongued with respect to the Sinclair siblings, was not actually an anti-Semite, citing the evidence of his friendships with other Dublin Jews. James Carens observes that anti-Semitic remarks are present in Gogarty's early journalism and in his private correspondence, but upholds Gogarty's claim that usury
Usury
Usury Originally, when the charging of interest was still banned by Christian churches, usury simply meant the charging of interest at any rate . In countries where the charging of interest became acceptable, the term came to be used for interest above the rate allowed by law...
and child molestation, not Jews or Judaism, were the intended targets of satire in Sackville Street.
Influence
BeckettSamuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
critic Sighle Kennedy has argued that Gogarty's portrayal of the lunatic Endymion in As I Was Going Down Sackville Street influenced Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
's novel Murphy
Murphy (novel)
Murphy, first published in 1938, is a novel as well as the third work of prose fiction by the Irish author and dramatist Samuel Beckett. The book was Beckett's second published prose work after the short-story collection More Pricks than Kicks and his unpublished first novel Dream of Fair to...
, which was published just two years after Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
had first read Gogarty's book in connection with the Sinclair trial.