Oliver St John Gogarty

Oliver St John Gogarty

Born in Dublin the eldest son of surgeon Henry Gogarty and his wife Margaret (née Oliver), he was educated initially by the Christian Brothers and later attended Jesuit schools including Clongowes. He studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin 1897-1904 and became well-known as a champion cyclist and swimmer. He won prizes for poetry and his Rabelaisian verses (such as "The Ballad of Joking Jesus") circulated widely.

Gogarty met JJ in 1901. They were good friends for a while and in 1904 shared the Martello Tower in Sandycove for a few weeks. Later, JJ came to believe that Gogarty was conspiring against him, while Gogarty saw his portrayal in Ulysses as a betrayal of their friendship. JJ's literary portrayal of him did, in fact, seriously affect his reputation as a respectable surgeon and senator and continues to irritate aficionados of his writings.

Gogarty was a close friend of Arthur Griffith's and an advocate of his policies. After the latter's death, he strongly supported W. T. Cosgrave and his government and was an active member of the Senate of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1936. During this time, he maintained a busy, highly regarded medical practice in Dublin and hosted an influential salon while continuing to write poetry that was admired by W. B. Yeats.

De Valera's Ireland was not to Gogarty's liking, and in 1939, he moved permanently to the USA where he made a living from journalism and lecturing. Apart from poetry, he is noted for his reminiscences and the memoirs As I was going down Sackville Street (1937) and Tumbling in the Hay (1939). Ironically, today Oliver St John Gogarty is best remembered as Buck Mulligan, a character created by the writer whom he once called "an unlovable and lonely man". Tim O'Neill