Oliver St. John Gogarty
Encyclopedia
Oliver Joseph St John Gogarty (August 17, 1878 – September 22, 1957) 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
.
mill owner. Three siblings (Henry, Mary, and Richard) were born later. Gogarty's father, himself the son of a medical doctor, had been educated at Trinity College
and owned two fashionable homes in Dublin, which set the Gogartys apart from other Irish Catholic
families at that time and allowed them access to the same social circles as the Protestant Ascendancy
.
In 1887 Gogarty's father died of a burst appendix
, and Gogarty was sent to Mungret College
, a boarding school near Limerick
. He was unhappy in his new school, and the following year he transferred to Stonyhurst College
in Lancashire
, England, which he liked little better, later referring to it as "a religious jail".
Gogarty returned to Ireland in 1896 and boarded at Clongowes Wood College
while studying for examinations with the Royal University of Ireland
. He was a talented athlete; in England he had briefly played for the Preston North End FC Reserve, and while at Clongowes
he played for the Bohemian FC. He also played on Clongowes's soccer and cricket
elevens. His extracurricular interests, which also included cycling
and drinking, prevented him from being an attentive student, and in 1898 he switched to the medical school at Trinity College
, having failed eight of his ten examinations at the Royal
.
", Gogarty was known to be fond of public pranks and midnight carousing in "the Kips", Dublin's red-light district. He had a talent for humorous
and bawdy verse
, which quickly made the rounds through the city, and sometimes composed mnemonic
lyrics to aid his medical studies
. He also enjoyed a highly successful cycling career before being banned from the tracks in 1901 for bad language, and between 1898 and 1901 he rescued at least four people from drowning. He became interested in Irish nationalism
after meeting Arthur Griffith
in 1899, and contributed propaganda
pieces to The United Irishman
over subsequent years.
A serious interest in poetry
and literature
also began to manifest itself during his years at Trinity. His witty conversation made him a favorite with the dons
, particularly John Pentland Mahaffy
(formerly the tutor of Oscar Wilde
) and Robert Yelverton Tyrrell
, and between 1901 and 1903 he won three successive Vice-Chancellor's prizes for verse. In 1900 he made the acquaintance of W. B. Yeats (of whom his mother highly approved) and of George Moore
(of whom she did not) and began to frequent Dublin literary circles
. He also formed close friendships with other up-and-coming young poets, such as Seamus O'Sullivan
and James Joyce
. In 1904 he spent two terms
at Oxford
in order to compete for the Newdigate Prize
, but lost to G.K.A. Bell
, the future Bishop of Chichester
, who became a friend and frequent correspondent over the next few years.
Upon returning to Dublin in the summer of 1904, Gogarty made arrangements to rent the famous Martello Tower in Sandycove. The primary goal of this scheme, as described by Gogarty in a letter to G.K.A. Bell, was to "house the Bard" (i.e. James Joyce), who was without money and required "a year in which to finish his novel." The two friends quarreled in August, however, and Joyce either failed to move in or left shortly after doing so. Joyce briefly took up residence in the Tower the following month, together with Gogarty and his Oxford friend Samuel Chenevix Trench (a setup which later provided inspiration for the opening chapter of Ulysses
) but left again suddenly after only six days. Forty years later in America, Gogarty would attribute Joyce's abrupt departure to his and S.C. Trench's midnight antics with a loaded revolver
. Joyce and Gogarty corresponded intermittently during the early years of Joyce's continental exile and occasionally planned meetings, but contemporaneous letters from Joyce to his brother reveal deep distrust of Gogarty's motives, and their friendship was never fully renewed. Gogarty made use of the Martello Tower during the following year as a writing retreat and party venue, and officially held the lease until 1925.
In 1904 and 1905 Gogarty published several short poems in the London publication The Venture and in John Eglinton's journal Dana. His name also appeared in print as the renegade priest Fr. Oliver Gogarty in George Moore's 1905 novel The Lake, an occurrence which upset Gogarty's devout mother. In 1905 Gogarty became one of the founding members of Arthur Griffith
's Sinn Féin
, a non-violent political movement
with a plan for Irish autonomy modeled after the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy
.
family. Eager to establish himself with a profession, he passed his final medical examinations in June 1907, several months after the death of his mother. In July 1907 his first son, Oliver Duane Odysseus Gogarty (known as "Noll") was born, and in autumn of that year Gogarty left for Vienna
to finish the practical phase of his medical training. Owing in part to the influence of his mentor, Sir Robert Woods
, Gogarty had decided to specialize in otolaryngology
, and in Vienna
he studied under Ottokar Chiari
, Markus Hajek, and Robert Bárány
.
Returning to Dublin in 1908, Gogarty secured a post at Richmond Hospital, and shortly afterwards purchased a house in Ely Place
opposite George Moore. Three years later, he joined the staff of the Meath Hospital
and remained there for the remainder of his medical career. He became known for flamboyant theatrics in the operating room, including off-the-cuff witticisms and the flinging of recently-removed larynx
es at the viewing gallery. He also maintained ENT
consulting rooms in Ely Place
, attracting a number of wealthy clients and attending to less well-off patients for free.
Gogarty and his wife went on to have two more children, Dermot
(born 1908) and Brenda (born 1911), and in 1917 Gogarty purchased Renyvle, a large country house in Connemara
. He became a keen motorist during this time, purchasing a succession of cars
that culminated with a buttercup-colored Rolls Royce
. During the following decade he was also interested in aviation
, earning a pilot's license and helping to found the Irish Aero Club.
er during the Irish War of Independence
, Gogarty participated in a variety of anti-Black and Tan
schemes, allowing his home to be used as a safe house
and transporting disguised IRA
volunteers in his car. Following the ratification
of the Anglo-Irish Treaty
, Gogarty sided with the pro-Treaty government
(headed by his close friend Arthur Griffith
) and was made a Free State Senator
. When Griffith fell ill during the summer of 1922, Gogarty frequently attended his bedside. His death on August 12, 1922 had a profound effect on Gogarty; W.T. Cosgrave later observed that "he was almost mortally wounded when Griffith died, he was so very, very much attached to him." Gogarty carried out Griffith's official autopsy
and embalmment, and went on to perform the same offices for Michael Collins
, another close friend whom Gogarty had often sheltered in his Ely Place home prior to his assassination
. It was rumoured that Griffith had been planning to make Gogarty the new Governor-General of the Irish Free State
, but in his absence the post went to Tim Healy
.
In November 1922, anti-Treaty IRA
commander Liam Lynch issued a general order to his forces to shoot Free State Senators
. Two months later, Gogarty was kidnapped
by a group of anti-Treaty militants, who lured him out of his house and into a waiting car under the pretext of bringing him to visit a sick patient. Gogarty was subsequently driven to an empty house near Chapelizod
and held under armed guard. Aware that he might be in imminent danger of execution, Gogarty contrived to have himself led out into the garden (purportedly by claiming to be suffering from diarrhea
), where he broke free from his captors and flung himself into the Liffey; he then swam to shore and delivered himself to the protection of the police barracks in Phoenix Park
. In February of that same year, Renvyle was burnt to the ground by anti-Treaty forces. Following these incidents, Gogarty relocated his family and practice to London, where he resided until February 1924. Upon returning to Ireland, he famously released two swans into the River Liffey
in gratitude for his life.
Gogarty remained a senator until the abolition of the Seanad
in 1936, during which time he identified with none of the existing political parties and voted according to his own whims. He believed that Ireland should retain its dominion status in the British Commonwealth so as to "keep with nations who understand that the first principle of freedom is a freedom that does not permit interference with the personal liberties of the citizen." He supported rural electrification schemes, road improvement, reforestation
and conservation
, prevention of livestock cruelty, and educational reform. His views on controversial issues such as censorship
and birth control
were ambiguous; after expressing initial support for the Censorship Bill, he eventually went on to denounce it in scathing terms ("I think it is high time the men of this country found some other way of loving God than by hating women"), and while generally professing to oppose the sale of prophylactics, he voiced support for their usage in certain cases. He was most passionate on the subject of sanitation in schools and in urban and rural housing, about which he spoke frequently. His speeches frequently contained pun
s, wordplays, and extended poetic quotations, and were sometimes given in favour of facetious schemes, such as his attempt to have the phoenix
statue in Phoenix Park
included in the 1929 Wild Birds Protection Bill. He was notoriously scornful of the government's attempts to reinstate the Irish language
(which he referred to as "Woolworth's Irish"), proposing that funding be used instead for housing and school health services, and remained perpetually suspicious of Éamon de Valera
, against whose economic policies, character, and personal appearance he often hurled invectives during Seanad proceedings. De Valera
eventually dissolved the Seanad when it persisted in obstructing Government proposals, effectively ending Gogarty's political career.
, George Moore, Lord Dunsany, James Stephens
, Seamus O'Sullivan
, and other Dublin literati, and continued to write poetry in the midst of his political and professional duties. Three small books of poetry (Hyperthuleana, Secret Springs of Dublin Song, and The Ship and Other Poems) were published between 1916 and 1918. Gogarty also tried his hand at playwriting, producing a slum drama (Blight
) in 1917 under the pseudonym "Alpha and Omega", and two comedies (A Serious Thing and The Enchanted Trousers) in 1919 under the pseudonym "Gideon Ouseley", all three of which were performed at the Abbey Theatre
.
Gogarty devoted less energy to his medical practice and more to his writing during the twenties and thirties. His 1924 book of poetry An Offering of Swans won the Gold Medal for poetry at the revived Tailteann Games
, for which he also wrote the 1924 Olympic bronze medal-winning Tailteann Ode (which he was later to describe as "rather tripe"). In 1929 another book of verse, Wild Apples, was published, and was followed in 1933 by Selected Poems. Gogarty was also a member of Yeats's Irish Academy of Letters and frequently assisted in arranging its social functions. 1936 saw the publication of Yeats's Oxford Book of Modern Verse, which contained seventeen of Gogarty's poems and an introduction proclaiming him "one of the great lyric poets of our age." The over-representation given to Gogarty outraged many poets and perplexed Gogarty himself, who remarked, "What right have I to figure so bulkily? None from a poetical point of view... Sappho
herself could not have made a more subjective anthology."
In 1935 Gogarty published his first prose work, As I Was Going Down Sackville Street
(subtitled "A Phantasy in Fact"), a semi-fictional novel-memoir that tells, in reverse chronological order, the story of Gogarty's Dublin through a series of interconnected anecdotes and lively characters sketches. Shortly after its publication, it became the subject of a lawsuit by a Jewish art dealer
, Harry Sinclair, who claimed that he and his recently-deceased twin brother, William Sinclair, had been libeled by the publication. The two men did not appear as named characters in the book, but some derogatory lines of verse beginning "Two Jews grew in Sackville Street", written by Gogarty's friend George Redding and included in a scene in the novel, were widely known to refer to the Sinclair siblings. Harry Sinclair further recognized a reference to his grandfather, described in the text as one who "enticed little girls into his office", an offense of which his grandfather had in fact been convicted. Gogarty responded to the charges by claiming that the unnamed Jews were parodies or composite characters rather than deliberate evocations of living persons. 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." Among the witnesses for the prosecution was William Sinclair's nephew-by-marriage, Samuel Beckett
, then a little-known writer, who was humiliatingly denounced as a "bawd and blasphemer" by Gogarty's counsel. Gogarty ultimately lost the lawsuit and was ordered to pay £900 in damages, plus court costs. This outcome deeply embittered Gogarty, who had already suffered financial setbacks after the stock market crash of 1929 and felt that the verdict had been politically motivated.
In spite of the Sackville Street imbroglio, Gogarty's output over the next two years was prolific. In 1938 he published I Follow St. Patrick, a historical and geographic portrait of Ireland as told through Gogarty's rambling visits to various sites traditionally associated with St. Patrick; in 1939 he published Tumbling in the Hay, a semi-autobiographical comic novel about medical students in turn-of-the-century Dublin, and Elbow Room, another collection of poetry. In 1938 he relocated to London for a second time and brought forth his own libel suit against the young poet Patrick Kavanagh
, whose autobiography The Green Fool said of Kavanagh
's first visit to Gogarty's home: "I mistook Gogarty's white-robed maid for his wife or his mistress; I expected every poet to have a spare wife." Gogarty, who had taken offense at the close coupling of the words "wife" and "mistress", was awarded £100 in damages.
, Gogarty, who was an enthusiastic and talented amateur aviator
, attempted to enlist in the RAF and the RAMC as a doctor. He was denied on grounds of age. He then departed in September 1939 for an extended lecture tour in the United States, leaving his wife to manage Renvyle House, which had since been rebuilt as a hotel. When his return to Ireland was delayed by the war, Gogarty applied for American citizenship, and eventually decided to reside permanently in the United States. Though he regularly sent letters, funds, and care-packages to his family and returned home for occasional holiday visits, he never again lived in Ireland for any extended length of time. His primary American residence was in New York, where he was known to frequent bars on Third Avenue. He also spent time in Vermont
and in Wyckoff, New Jersey
.
Feeling that he was too old to sit for the medical examinations that would have qualified him as a practitioner in the United States, Gogarty instead chose to support himself entirely by his writing. In addition to various essays and short stories, his prose output included Going Native, a satire
on English social mores, Mad Grandeur and Mr. Petunia, two period narratives composed with an eye to having them optioned as Hollywood films, and Rolling Down the Lea and It Isn't This Time Of Year At All!, two loosely-constructed memoirs. He also published two books of poems, Perennial and Unselected Poems; a collection of bawdy verse, The Merry Muses of Hibernia, was planned but never completed. Gogarty's literary output during the forties and fifties is generally considered to be inferior to his earlier writings.
Gogarty suffered from heart complaints during the last few years of his life, and in September 1957 he collapsed in the street on his way to dinner. He died on September 22, 1957; his body was flown home to Ireland and buried in Cartron Church,Moyard, near Renvyle.
, the irrepressible roommate of Stephen Dedalus
in James Joyce's Ulysses. Mulligan quotes a number of songs and poems known to have been written by Gogarty, the most famous of which, "The Song of the Cheerful (But Slightly Sarcastic) Jesus"
, was originally sent to Joyce as a belated Christmas
peace offering after their quarrels of 1904. Other details, such as Mulligan's Hellenism
, his status as a medical student, his history of saving men from drowning, his friendship with George Moore, and the metrical arrangement of his full name (Malachi Roland St. John Mulligan) parallel Gogarty's biography. The living arrangements of Mulligan and Stephen, however, differ sharply from those of Joyce and Gogarty; in Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus is the rentpayer and breadwinner of the Martello Tower off whom Mulligan carelessly sponges, an almost complete reversal of Joyce and Gogarty's actual positions during the summer of 1904. Due to his influence on Joyce (he is also sometimes cited as an inspiration for Dubliners
character Ignatius Gallagher and Exiles
antagonist Robert Hand), Gogarty's name often comes up in Joyce scholarship, though Gogarty's own editors and biographers complain that these references are frequently inaccurate, owing to Gogarty-related errata in Richard Ellmann's James Joyce
and a tendency to conflate the real-life Gogarty with the fictional character of Buck Mulligan.
It has also been suggested that the speaker of W.B. Yeats's poem High Talk, "Malachi Stilt-Jack", is intended to be a representation of Gogarty.
district of Dublin is named after him and an annual Oliver St. John Gogarty Literary Festival is held in the author's family home, now the Renvyle House Hotel in Connemara
.
Buck Mulligan
Malachi "Buck" Mulligan is a fictional character in James Joyce's novel Ulysses. He appears most prominently in episode 1 , and is the subject of the novel's famous first sentence:...
in 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...
's novel Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
.
Early life
Gogarty was born August 17, 1878 in Rutland Square, Dublin, the eldest child of Henry Gogarty, a well-to-do Dublin physician, and Margaret Gogarty (née Oliver), the daughter of a GalwayGalway
Galway or City of Galway is a city in County Galway, Republic of Ireland. It is the sixth largest and the fastest-growing city in Ireland. It is also the third largest city within the Republic and the only city in the Province of Connacht. Located on the west coast of Ireland, it sits on the...
mill owner. Three siblings (Henry, Mary, and Richard) were born later. Gogarty's father, himself the son of a medical doctor, had been educated at Trinity College
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
and owned two fashionable homes in Dublin, which set the Gogartys apart from other Irish 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...
families at that time and allowed them access to the same social circles as the Protestant 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...
.
In 1887 Gogarty's father died of a burst appendix
Appendicitis
Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency and many cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly because of the risk of rupture leading to...
, and Gogarty was sent to Mungret College
Mungret College
Mungret College, situated west of Limerick, Ireland, near the village of Mungret, was a Jesuit apostolic school and a lay secondary school from 1882 until 1974 when it closed as a school for the last time. The college produced over 1000 priests in that period...
, a boarding school near Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
. He was unhappy in his new school, and the following year he transferred to Stonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College is a Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Jesuit tradition. It is located on the Stonyhurst Estate near the village of Hurst Green in the Ribble Valley area of Lancashire, England, and occupies a Grade I listed building...
in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, England, which he liked little better, later referring to it as "a religious jail".
Gogarty returned to Ireland in 1896 and boarded at Clongowes Wood College
Clongowes Wood College
Clongowes Wood College is a voluntary secondary boarding school for boys, located near Clane in County Kildare, Ireland. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1814, it is one of Ireland's oldest Catholic schools, and featured prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the...
while studying for examinations with the Royal University of Ireland
Royal University of Ireland
The Royal University of Ireland was founded in accordance with the University Education Act 1879 as an examining and degree-awarding university based on the model of the University of London. A Royal Charter was issued on April 27, 1880 and examinations were opened to candidates irrespective of...
. He was a talented athlete; in England he had briefly played for the Preston North End FC Reserve, and while at Clongowes
Clongowes Wood College
Clongowes Wood College is a voluntary secondary boarding school for boys, located near Clane in County Kildare, Ireland. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1814, it is one of Ireland's oldest Catholic schools, and featured prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the...
he played for the Bohemian FC. He also played on Clongowes's soccer and cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
elevens. His extracurricular interests, which also included cycling
Cycling
Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...
and drinking, prevented him from being an attentive student, and in 1898 he switched to the medical school at Trinity College
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
, having failed eight of his ten examinations at the Royal
Royal University of Ireland
The Royal University of Ireland was founded in accordance with the University Education Act 1879 as an examining and degree-awarding university based on the model of the University of London. A Royal Charter was issued on April 27, 1880 and examinations were opened to candidates irrespective of...
.
University days
As one of Dublin's "medicosMedical Student
Medical Student may refer to:*Someone studying at medical school*Medical Student Newspaper, a UK publication...
", Gogarty was known to be fond of public pranks and midnight carousing in "the Kips", Dublin's red-light district. He had a talent for humorous
Light poetry
Light poetry, or light verse, is poetry that attempts to be humorous. Poems considered "light" are usually brief, and can be on a frivolous or serious subject, and often feature word play, including puns, adventurous rhyme and heavy alliteration...
and bawdy verse
Ribaldry
Ribaldry is humorous entertainment that ranges from bordering on indelicacy to gross indecency. It is also referred to as "bawdiness", "gaminess" or "bawdry"....
, which quickly made the rounds through the city, and sometimes composed mnemonic
Mnemonic
A mnemonic , or mnemonic device, is any learning technique that aids memory. To improve long term memory, mnemonic systems are used to make memorization easier. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often verbal, such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something,...
lyrics to aid his medical studies
Medical school
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...
. He also enjoyed a highly successful cycling career before being banned from the tracks in 1901 for bad language, and between 1898 and 1901 he rescued at least four people from drowning. He became interested in Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
after meeting 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:...
in 1899, and contributed propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
pieces to The United Irishman
United Irishman
The United Irishman title has been a very popular newspaper title in Ireland and a number of newspapers have been published under the title.*...
over subsequent years.
A serious interest in poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
also began to manifest itself during his years at Trinity. His witty conversation made him a favorite with the dons
University don
A don is a fellow or tutor of a college or university, especially traditional collegiate universities such as Oxford and Cambridge in England.The term — similar to the title still used for Catholic priests — is a historical remnant of Oxford and Cambridge having started as ecclesiastical...
, particularly John Pentland Mahaffy
John Pentland Mahaffy
The Rev. John Pentland Mahaffy GBE CVO was an Irish classicist and polymathic scholar.-Education and interests:...
(formerly the tutor of Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
) and 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:...
, and between 1901 and 1903 he won three successive Vice-Chancellor's prizes for verse. In 1900 he made the acquaintance of W. B. Yeats (of whom his mother highly approved) and of 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...
(of whom she did not) and began to frequent Dublin literary circles
Celtic Revival
Celtic Revival covers a variety of movements and trends, mostly in the 19th and 20th centuries, which drew on the traditions of Celtic literature and Celtic art, or in fact more often what art historians call Insular art...
. He also formed close friendships with other up-and-coming young poets, such as Seamus O'Sullivan
Seamus O'Sullivan
Seumas or Seamus O'Sullivan, real name James Sullivan Starkey, was an Irish poet and editor of The Dublin Magazine. He was born in Dublin and spent his adult life in the suburb of Rathgar...
and 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...
. In 1904 he spent two terms
Academic term
An academic term is a division of an academic year, the time during which a school, college or university holds classes. These divisions may be called terms...
at Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
in order to compete for the Newdigate Prize
Newdigate prize
Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize is awarded to students of the University of Oxford for Best Composition in English verse by an undergraduate who has been admitted to Oxford within the previous four years. It was founded by Sir Roger Newdigate, Bt in the 18th century...
, but lost to G.K.A. Bell
George Bell (bishop)
George Kennedy Allen Bell was an Anglican theologian, Dean of Canterbury, Bishop of Chichester, member of the House of Lords and a pioneer of the Ecumenical Movement.-Early career:...
, the future Bishop of Chichester
Bishop of Chichester
The Bishop of Chichester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the Counties of East and West Sussex. The see is in the City of Chichester where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity...
, who became a friend and frequent correspondent over the next few years.
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
) but left again suddenly after only six days. Forty years later in America, Gogarty would attribute Joyce's abrupt departure to his and S.C. Trench's midnight antics with a loaded revolver
Revolver
A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...
. Joyce and Gogarty corresponded intermittently during the early years of Joyce's continental exile and occasionally planned meetings, but contemporaneous letters from Joyce to his brother reveal deep distrust of Gogarty's motives, and their friendship was never fully renewed. Gogarty made use of the Martello Tower during the following year as a writing retreat and party venue, and officially held the lease until 1925.
In 1904 and 1905 Gogarty published several short poems in the London publication The Venture and in John Eglinton's journal Dana. His name also appeared in print as the renegade priest Fr. Oliver Gogarty in George Moore's 1905 novel The Lake, an occurrence which upset Gogarty's devout mother. In 1905 Gogarty became one of the founding members of 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:...
's 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...
, a non-violent political movement
Nonviolent revolution
A nonviolent revolution is a revolution using mostly campaigns of civil resistance, including various forms of nonviolent protest, to bring about the departure of governments seen as entrenched and authoritarian...
with a plan for Irish autonomy modeled after the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
.
Medical career and family
In August 1906, Gogarty married Martha Duane, a girl from a landowning ConnemaraConnemara
Connemara is a district in the west of Ireland consisting of a broad peninsula between Killary Harbour and Kilkieran Bay in the west of County Galway.-Overview:...
family. Eager to establish himself with a profession, he passed his final medical examinations in June 1907, several months after the death of his mother. In July 1907 his first son, Oliver Duane Odysseus Gogarty (known as "Noll") was born, and in autumn of that year Gogarty left for Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
to finish the practical phase of his medical training. Owing in part to the influence of his mentor, Sir Robert Woods
Robert Henry Woods
Sir Robert Henry Woods was an Irish Independent Unionist Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom Parliament. He was born at Tullamore. He was knighted in 1913....
, Gogarty had decided to specialize in otolaryngology
Otolaryngology
Otolaryngology or ENT is the branch of medicine and surgery that specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of ear, nose, throat, and head and neck disorders....
, and in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
he studied under Ottokar Chiari
Ottokar Chiari
Ottokar Chiari was an Austrian laryngologist and professor at the University of Vienna who was a native of Prague....
, Markus Hajek, and Robert Bárány
Robert Bárány
Robert Bárány was a Austro-Hungarian otologist. For his work on the physiology and pathology of the vestibular apparatus of the ear he received the 1914 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.- Biography :...
.
Returning to Dublin in 1908, Gogarty secured a post at Richmond Hospital, and shortly afterwards purchased a house in Ely Place
Ely Place
Ely Place is a gated road at the southern tip of the London Borough of Camden in London, England. It is the location of the Old Mitre Tavern and is adjacent to Hatton Garden.-Origins:...
opposite George Moore. Three years later, he joined the staff of the Meath Hospital
Meath Hospital
The Meath Hospital in Dublin, Ireland was founded in 1753. Situated in the Earl of Meath's Liberty, the hospital was opened to serve the sick and poor in the crowded area of the Liberties in Dublin....
and remained there for the remainder of his medical career. He became known for flamboyant theatrics in the operating room, including off-the-cuff witticisms and the flinging of recently-removed larynx
Larynx
The larynx , commonly called the voice box, is an organ in the neck of amphibians, reptiles and mammals involved in breathing, sound production, and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. It manipulates pitch and volume...
es at the viewing gallery. He also maintained ENT
Otolaryngology
Otolaryngology or ENT is the branch of medicine and surgery that specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of ear, nose, throat, and head and neck disorders....
consulting rooms in Ely Place
Ely Place
Ely Place is a gated road at the southern tip of the London Borough of Camden in London, England. It is the location of the Old Mitre Tavern and is adjacent to Hatton Garden.-Origins:...
, attracting a number of wealthy clients and attending to less well-off patients for free.
Gogarty and his wife went on to have two more children, Dermot
Dermot St. John Gogarty
Dermot St. John Gogarty, RIAI, RIBA, was a well-known Irish architect of Dublin and Galway active throughout mid-twentieth-century Ireland. He was the second son of Oliver St John Gogarty, and educated at Downside and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He apprenticed under Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ,...
(born 1908) and Brenda (born 1911), and in 1917 Gogarty purchased Renyvle, a large country house in Connemara
Connemara
Connemara is a district in the west of Ireland consisting of a broad peninsula between Killary Harbour and Kilkieran Bay in the west of County Galway.-Overview:...
. He became a keen motorist during this time, purchasing a succession of cars
CARS
Cars, or automobiles, motor cars, are wheeled motor vehicles used for transporting passengers.Cars or CARS may also refer to:-Entertainment:* Cars , a Disney/Pixar film series...
that culminated with a buttercup-colored Rolls Royce
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
. During the following decade he was also interested in aviation
Aviation
Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
, earning a pilot's license and helping to found the Irish Aero Club.
Free State Senator
As a Sinn FéinSinn 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...
er during 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...
, Gogarty participated in a variety of anti-Black and Tan
Black and Tan
Black and Tan is a drink made from a blend of pale ale, usually Bass Pale Ale, and a dark beer such as a stout or porter, most often Guinness. Sometimes a pale lager is used instead of ale; this is usually called a half and half. Contrary to popular belief, however, Black and Tan as a mixture of...
schemes, allowing his home to be used as a safe house
Safe house
In the jargon of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, a safe house is a secure location, suitable for hiding witnesses, agents or other persons perceived as being in danger...
and transporting disguised 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...
volunteers in his car. Following the ratification
Ratification
Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent where the agent lacked authority to legally bind the principal. The term applies to private contract law, international treaties, and constitutionals in federations such as the United States and Canada.- Private law :In contract law, the...
of the Anglo-Irish Treaty
Anglo-Irish Treaty
The Anglo-Irish Treaty , officially called the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was a treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the secessionist Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of...
, Gogarty sided with the pro-Treaty government
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...
(headed by his close friend 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 was made 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...
. When Griffith fell ill during the summer of 1922, Gogarty frequently attended his bedside. His death on August 12, 1922 had a profound effect on Gogarty; W.T. Cosgrave later observed that "he was almost mortally wounded when Griffith died, he was so very, very much attached to him." Gogarty carried out Griffith's official autopsy
Autopsy
An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
and embalmment, and went on to perform the same offices for 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...
, another close friend whom Gogarty had often sheltered in his Ely Place home prior to his assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
. It was rumoured that Griffith had been planning to make Gogarty the new Governor-General of the Irish Free State
Governor-General of the Irish Free State
The Governor-General was the representative of the King in the 1922–1937 Irish Free State. Until 1927 he was also the agent of the British government in the Irish state. By convention the office of Governor-General was largely ceremonial...
, but in his absence the post went to Tim Healy
Timothy Michael Healy
Timothy Michael Healy, KC , also known as Tim Healy, was an Irish nationalist politician, journalist, author, barrister and one of the most controversial Irish Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
.
In November 1922, anti-Treaty 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...
commander Liam Lynch issued a general order to his forces to shoot Free State Senators
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...
. Two months later, Gogarty was kidnapped
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
by a group of anti-Treaty militants, who lured him out of his house and into a waiting car under the pretext of bringing him to visit a sick patient. Gogarty was subsequently driven to an empty house near Chapelizod
Chapelizod
Chapelizod is a picturesque Irish village preserved within the city of Dublin, Ireland. It lies in the verdant wooded valley of the River Liffey, on the way to the slopes of the Strawberry Beds, below the Phoenix Park. The village is associated with Iseult of Ireland and the location of Iseault's...
and held under armed guard. Aware that he might be in imminent danger of execution, Gogarty contrived to have himself led out into the garden (purportedly by claiming to be suffering from diarrhea
Diarrhea
Diarrhea , also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having three or more loose or liquid bowel movements per day. It is a common cause of death in developing countries and the second most common cause of infant deaths worldwide. The loss of fluids through diarrhea can cause dehydration and...
), where he broke free from his captors and flung himself into the Liffey; he then swam to shore and delivered himself to the protection of the police barracks in Phoenix Park
Phoenix Park
Phoenix Park is an urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying 2–4 km west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its 16 km perimeter wall encloses , one of the largest walled city parks in Europe. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since the seventeenth...
. In February of that same year, Renvyle was burnt to the ground by anti-Treaty forces. Following these incidents, Gogarty relocated his family and practice to London, where he resided until February 1924. Upon returning to Ireland, he famously released two swans into the River Liffey
River Liffey
The Liffey is a river in Ireland, which flows through the centre of Dublin. Its major tributaries include the River Dodder, the River Poddle and the River Camac. The river supplies much of Dublin's water, and a range of recreational opportunities.-Name:The river was previously named An Ruirthech,...
in gratitude for his life.
Gogarty remained a senator until the abolition of the Seanad
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...
in 1936, during which time he identified with none of the existing political parties and voted according to his own whims. He believed that Ireland should retain its dominion status in the British Commonwealth so as to "keep with nations who understand that the first principle of freedom is a freedom that does not permit interference with the personal liberties of the citizen." He supported rural electrification schemes, road improvement, reforestation
Reforestation
Reforestation is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands that have been depleted, usually through deforestation....
and conservation
Conservation movement
The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
, prevention of livestock cruelty, and educational reform. His views on controversial issues such as censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
and birth control
Birth control
Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
were ambiguous; after expressing initial support for the Censorship Bill, he eventually went on to denounce it in scathing terms ("I think it is high time the men of this country found some other way of loving God than by hating women"), and while generally professing to oppose the sale of prophylactics, he voiced support for their usage in certain cases. He was most passionate on the subject of sanitation in schools and in urban and rural housing, about which he spoke frequently. His speeches frequently contained pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
s, wordplays, and extended poetic quotations, and were sometimes given in favour of facetious schemes, such as his attempt to have the phoenix
Phoenix (mythology)
The phoenix or phenix is a mythical sacred firebird that can be found in the mythologies of the Arabian, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, Indian and Phoenicians....
statue in Phoenix Park
Phoenix Park
Phoenix Park is an urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying 2–4 km west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its 16 km perimeter wall encloses , one of the largest walled city parks in Europe. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since the seventeenth...
included in the 1929 Wild Birds Protection Bill. He was notoriously scornful of the government's attempts to reinstate the Irish language
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
(which he referred to as "Woolworth's Irish"), proposing that funding be used instead for housing and school health services, and remained perpetually suspicious of 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...
, against whose economic policies, character, and personal appearance he often hurled invectives during Seanad proceedings. 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...
eventually dissolved the Seanad when it persisted in obstructing Government proposals, effectively ending Gogarty's political career.
Literary endeavours
Gogarty maintained close friendships with W. B. Yeats, AEGeorge 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...
, George Moore, Lord Dunsany, James Stephens
James Stephens (author)
James Stephens was an Irish novelist and poet.James Stephens wrote many retellings of Irish myths and fairy tales. His retellings are marked by a rare combination of humor and lyricism...
, Seamus O'Sullivan
Seamus O'Sullivan
Seumas or Seamus O'Sullivan, real name James Sullivan Starkey, was an Irish poet and editor of The Dublin Magazine. He was born in Dublin and spent his adult life in the suburb of Rathgar...
, and other Dublin literati, and continued to write poetry in the midst of his political and professional duties. Three small books of poetry (Hyperthuleana, Secret Springs of Dublin Song, and The Ship and Other Poems) were published between 1916 and 1918. Gogarty also tried his hand at playwriting, producing a slum drama (Blight
Blight (play)
Blight: The Tragedy of Dublin is a play by Oliver St. John Gogarty. One of the earliest Irish "slum dramas", it focuses on the horrific conditions prevalent in Dublin's tenements and the ineffectuality of the medical and charitable institutions set up to combat them...
) in 1917 under the pseudonym "Alpha and Omega", and two comedies (A Serious Thing and The Enchanted Trousers) in 1919 under the pseudonym "Gideon Ouseley", all three of which were performed at the Abbey Theatre
Abbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...
.
Gogarty devoted less energy to his medical practice and more to his writing during the twenties and thirties. His 1924 book of poetry An Offering of Swans won the Gold Medal for poetry at the revived Tailteann Games
Tailteann Games
The Tailteann Games were an ancient sporting event held in Ireland in honour of the goddess Tailtiu. They ran from 632 BC to 1169-1171 AD when they died out after the Norman invasion....
, for which he also wrote the 1924 Olympic bronze medal-winning Tailteann Ode (which he was later to describe as "rather tripe"). In 1929 another book of verse, Wild Apples, was published, and was followed in 1933 by Selected Poems. Gogarty was also a member of Yeats's Irish Academy of Letters and frequently assisted in arranging its social functions. 1936 saw the publication of Yeats's Oxford Book of Modern Verse, which contained seventeen of Gogarty's poems and an introduction proclaiming him "one of the great lyric poets of our age." The over-representation given to Gogarty outraged many poets and perplexed Gogarty himself, who remarked, "What right have I to figure so bulkily? None from a poetical point of view... Sappho
Sappho
Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
herself could not have made a more subjective anthology."
In 1935 Gogarty published his first prose work, As I Was Going Down Sackville Street
As I Was Going Down Sackville Street
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"...
(subtitled "A Phantasy in Fact"), a semi-fictional novel-memoir that tells, in reverse chronological order, the story of Gogarty's Dublin through a series of interconnected anecdotes and lively characters sketches. Shortly after its publication, it became the subject of a lawsuit by a Jewish art dealer
Art dealer
An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art. Art dealers' professional associations serve to set high standards for accreditation or membership and to support art exhibitions and shows.-Role:...
, Harry Sinclair, who claimed that he and his recently-deceased twin brother, William Sinclair, had been libeled by the publication. The two men did not appear as named characters in the book, but some derogatory lines of verse beginning "Two Jews grew in Sackville Street", written by Gogarty's friend George Redding and included in a scene in the novel, were widely known to refer to the Sinclair siblings. Harry Sinclair further recognized a reference to his grandfather, described in the text as one who "enticed little girls into his office", an offense of which his grandfather had in fact been convicted. Gogarty responded to the charges by claiming that the unnamed Jews were parodies or composite characters rather than deliberate evocations of living persons. 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, could really capture the mood of this trial." Among the witnesses for the prosecution was William Sinclair's nephew-by-marriage, 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, who was humiliatingly denounced as a "bawd and blasphemer" by Gogarty's counsel. Gogarty ultimately lost the lawsuit and was ordered to pay £900 in damages, plus court costs. This outcome deeply embittered Gogarty, who had already suffered financial setbacks after the stock market crash of 1929 and felt that the verdict had been politically motivated.
In spite of the Sackville Street imbroglio, Gogarty's output over the next two years was prolific. In 1938 he published I Follow St. Patrick, a historical and geographic portrait of Ireland as told through Gogarty's rambling visits to various sites traditionally associated with St. Patrick; in 1939 he published Tumbling in the Hay, a semi-autobiographical comic novel about medical students in turn-of-the-century Dublin, and Elbow Room, another collection of poetry. In 1938 he relocated to London for a second time and brought forth his own libel suit against the young poet Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh was an Irish poet and novelist. Regarded as one of the foremost poets of the 20th century, his best known works include the novel Tarry Flynn and the poems Raglan Road and The Great Hunger...
, whose autobiography The Green Fool said of Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh was an Irish poet and novelist. Regarded as one of the foremost poets of the 20th century, his best known works include the novel Tarry Flynn and the poems Raglan Road and The Great Hunger...
's first visit to Gogarty's home: "I mistook Gogarty's white-robed maid for his wife or his mistress; I expected every poet to have a spare wife." Gogarty, who had taken offense at the close coupling of the words "wife" and "mistress", was awarded £100 in damages.
American years
With the onset of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Gogarty, who was an enthusiastic and talented amateur aviator
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
, attempted to enlist in the RAF and the RAMC as a doctor. He was denied on grounds of age. He then departed in September 1939 for an extended lecture tour in the United States, leaving his wife to manage Renvyle House, which had since been rebuilt as a hotel. When his return to Ireland was delayed by the war, Gogarty applied for American citizenship, and eventually decided to reside permanently in the United States. Though he regularly sent letters, funds, and care-packages to his family and returned home for occasional holiday visits, he never again lived in Ireland for any extended length of time. His primary American residence was in New York, where he was known to frequent bars on Third Avenue. He also spent time in Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
and in Wyckoff, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
.
Feeling that he was too old to sit for the medical examinations that would have qualified him as a practitioner in the United States, Gogarty instead chose to support himself entirely by his writing. In addition to various essays and short stories, his prose output included Going Native, a satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
on English social mores, Mad Grandeur and Mr. Petunia, two period narratives composed with an eye to having them optioned as Hollywood films, and Rolling Down the Lea and It Isn't This Time Of Year At All!, two loosely-constructed memoirs. He also published two books of poems, Perennial and Unselected Poems; a collection of bawdy verse, The Merry Muses of Hibernia, was planned but never completed. Gogarty's literary output during the forties and fifties is generally considered to be inferior to his earlier writings.
Gogarty suffered from heart complaints during the last few years of his life, and in September 1957 he collapsed in the street on his way to dinner. He died on September 22, 1957; his body was flown home to Ireland and buried in Cartron Church,Moyard, near Renvyle.
Literary Portrayal
A highly-visible and distinctive Dublin character during his lifetime, Gogarty appears in a number of memoirs penned by his contemporaries, notably George Moore's Hail and Farewell, where he goes both by his own name and by the pseudonym "Conan." His most famous literary incarnation, however, is as Buck MulliganBuck Mulligan
Malachi "Buck" Mulligan is a fictional character in James Joyce's novel Ulysses. He appears most prominently in episode 1 , and is the subject of the novel's famous first sentence:...
, the irrepressible roommate of Stephen Dedalus
Stephen Dedalus
Stephen Dedalus is James Joyce's literary alter ego, appearing as the protagonist and antihero of his first, semi-autobiographical novel of artistic existence A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and an important character in Joyce's Ulysses...
in James Joyce's Ulysses. Mulligan quotes a number of songs and poems known to have been written by Gogarty, the most famous of which, "The Song of the Cheerful (But Slightly Sarcastic) Jesus"
The Ballad of Japing Jesus
"The Song of the Cheerful Jesus" is a poem by Oliver St. John Gogarty. It was written around Christmas of 1904 and was later published in modified form as "The Ballad of Joking Jesus" in James Joyce's Ulysses.-Original text:...
, was originally sent to Joyce as a belated Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
peace offering after their quarrels of 1904. Other details, such as Mulligan's Hellenism
Hellenism (neoclassicism)
Hellenism, as a neoclassical movement distinct from other Roman or Greco-Roman forms of neoclassicism emerging after the European Renaissance, is most often associated with Germany and England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries...
, his status as a medical student, his history of saving men from drowning, his friendship with George Moore, and the metrical arrangement of his full name (Malachi Roland St. John Mulligan) parallel Gogarty's biography. The living arrangements of Mulligan and Stephen, however, differ sharply from those of Joyce and Gogarty; in Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus is the rentpayer and breadwinner of the Martello Tower off whom Mulligan carelessly sponges, an almost complete reversal of Joyce and Gogarty's actual positions during the summer of 1904. Due to his influence on Joyce (he is also sometimes cited as an inspiration for Dubliners
Dubliners
Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They were meant to be a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century....
character Ignatius Gallagher and Exiles
Exiles (play)
Exiles is a play by James Joyce, who is principally remembered for his novels. It draws on the story of "The Dead", the final short story in Joyce's first major work, Dubliners, and was rejected by W. B. Yeats for production by the Abbey Theatre...
antagonist Robert Hand), Gogarty's name often comes up in Joyce scholarship, though Gogarty's own editors and biographers complain that these references are frequently inaccurate, owing to Gogarty-related errata in Richard Ellmann's James Joyce
James Joyce (biography)
James Joyce by Richard Ellmann was published in 1959 . It is widely accepted as a masterpiece of literary biography. Anthony Burgess was so impressed with the biographer's work that he claimed it to be "the greatest literary biography of the century"...
and a tendency to conflate the real-life Gogarty with the fictional character of Buck Mulligan.
It has also been suggested that the speaker of W.B. Yeats's poem High Talk, "Malachi Stilt-Jack", is intended to be a representation of Gogarty.
Legacy
A pub in the Temple BarTemple Bar, Dublin
Temple Bar is an area on the south bank of the River Liffey in central Dublin, Ireland. Unlike the areas surrounding it, Temple Bar has preserved its medieval street pattern, with many narrow cobbled streets. It is promoted as "Dublin's cultural quarter" and has a lively nightlife that is popular...
district of Dublin is named after him and an annual Oliver St. John Gogarty Literary Festival is held in the author's family home, now the Renvyle House Hotel in Connemara
Connemara
Connemara is a district in the west of Ireland consisting of a broad peninsula between Killary Harbour and Kilkieran Bay in the west of County Galway.-Overview:...
.
Books
- Hyperthuleana (1916)
- Blight: The Tragedy of DublinBlight (play)Blight: The Tragedy of Dublin is a play by Oliver St. John Gogarty. One of the earliest Irish "slum dramas", it focuses on the horrific conditions prevalent in Dublin's tenements and the ineffectuality of the medical and charitable institutions set up to combat them...
(1917) - Secret Springs of Dublin Song (1918)
- The Ship and Other Poems (1918)
- A Serious Thing (1919)
- The Enchanted Trousers (1919)
- An Offering of Swans (1923)
- An Offering of Swans and Other Poems (1924)
- Wild Apples (three versions: 1928, 1929, 1930)
- Selected Poems (1933)
- As I Was Going Down Sackville StreetAs I Was Going Down Sackville StreetAs 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"...
(1937) - Others to Adorn (1938)
- I Follow St. Patrick (1938)
- Elbow Room (two versions: 1939, 1942)
- Tumbling in the Hay (1939)
- Going Native (1940)
- Mad Grandeur (1941)
- Perennial (two versions: 1944, 1946)
- Mr. Petunia (1946)
- Mourning Became Mrs. Spendlove (1948)
- Rolling Down the Lea (1949)
- Intimations (1950)
- Collected Poems (1951)
- Unselected Poems (1954)
- It Isn't This Time of Year At All!: An Unpremeditated Autobiography (1954)
- Start From Somewhere Else (1955)
- A Weekend in the Middle of the Week (1958)
- The Poems & Plays of Oliver St. John Gogarty (containing rare and unpublished material, 2001)
Biography
- Ulick O'ConnorUlick O'ConnorUlick O'Connor is an Irish writer, historian and critic.-Early life:Born in Rathgar, County Dublin in 1928, O'Connor attended St. Mary's College, Rathmines and later University College Dublin, where he studied law and philosophy, becoming known as a keen sporting participant, especially in boxing,...
, Oliver St. John Gogarty (1963) - J. B. Lyons, Oliver St. John Gogarty (1976, 1980)
External links
- Robot Wisdom's Joyce Page
- 'Perfection of the Life, Perfection of the Art' Irish literary critic Val Nolan writing on the St. John Gogarty Literary Festival for Poetry Ireland News
- Gogarty as sportsman
- Gogarty in the Paris Olympic Games of 1924