Oliver St. John Gogarty
Oliver St. John Gogarty | |
---|---|
Born | Rutland Square, Dublin, Ireland | 17 August 1878
Died | 22 September 1957 New York City, United States | (aged 79)
Occupation | Author, poet, memoirist, physician/surgeon, politician, athlete |
Literary movement | Irish Literary Renaissance |
Notable works | As I Was Going Down Sackville Street (1937) |
Spouse |
Martha Duane Gogarty
(m. 1906) |
Children | 3, including Dermot |
Senator | |
In office 11 December 1922 – 29 May 1936 | |
Personal details | |
Political party | |
Olympic medal record | ||
---|---|---|
Art competitions | ||
1924 Paris | Literature |
Oliver Joseph St. John Gogarty (17 August 1878 – 22 September 1957) was an Irish poet, author,
Life
Early life
Gogarty was born 17 August 1878 in
Gogarty was sent by his father to the Christian Brothers' O'Connell School (North Richmond Street, Dublin), which he happily attended, 1890–92. When his father died suddenly in 1891, his family then sent him to Mungret College, a boarding school near Limerick.[3] He was unhappy in his new school, and the following year he transferred to Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, England, which he liked a little better, later referring to it as "a religious jail".[4]
Gogarty returned to Ireland in 1896 and boarded at
University days
As one of Dublin's "
A serious interest in poetry and literature also began to manifest itself during his years at Trinity. His witty conversation made him a favourite with the
Upon returning to Dublin in the summer of 1904, Gogarty made arrangements to rent the
In 1904 and 1905 Gogarty published several short poems in the London publication The Venture and in John Eglinton's journal Dana.[16] 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.[17] 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 modelled after the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy.[18]
Medical career and family
In August 1906, Gogarty married Martha Duane, a girl from a landowning
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
Gogarty and his wife had two more children, Dermot (born 1908) and Brenda (born 1911), and in 1917 Gogarty purchased Renvyle House, a large country house in Renvyle, Connemara, from Caroline Blake.[20] He became a keen motorist during this time, purchasing a succession of automobiles that culminated with a buttercup-coloured Rolls-Royce.[21] During the following decade he was also interested in aviation, earning a pilot's licence and helping to found the Irish Aero Club.[22]
Free State Senator
As a
In November 1922, anti-Treaty
Gogarty remained a senator until the abolition of the
Literary endeavours
Gogarty maintained close friendships with
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
In 1935 Gogarty published his first prose work,
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
American years
With the onset of World War II, Gogarty, who was an enthusiastic and talented amateur aviator, attempted to enlist in the
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.[46]
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 22 September 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".
It has also been suggested[who?] that the speaker of W. B. Yeats's poem High Talk, "Malachi Stilt-Jack", is intended to be a representation of Gogarty.[51]
Legacy
A pub in the Temple Bar 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. A surgical ward in the descendant hospital of his workplace, the Tallaght University Hospital, now also bears his name.
William Dawson wrote The Lay of Oliver Gogarty about his kidnap and escape.[52][53]
A documentary on Gogarty, Oliver St. John Gogarty: Silence Would Never Do was produced in 1987.[54]
Books
- Hyperthuleana (1916)
- Blight: The Tragedy of Dublin (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 Street (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)
Arms
|
Sources
- ^ "General Registrar's Office". IrishGenealogy.ie. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
- ^ O'Connor, pp.12–13
- ^ Maume, Patrick. "Gogarty, Oliver St John". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
- ^ Gogarty, Oliver (1954). It Isn't This Time of Year at All!. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. p. 41.
- ^ O'Connor, pp. 14–16
- ^ O'Connor, pp. 22–23
- ^ O'Connor, pp. 54–55
- ^ O'Connor, pp. 24–25, 39
- ^ O'Connor, pp. 92–93
- ^ O'Connor, pp. 29–30
- ^ O'Connor, pp71-75
- ^ Carens, James (1972). Many Lines to Thee. Dublin: Dolmen Press. p. 16.
- ^ Ellman, p.175
- ^ Gogarty, Oliver (1948). Mourning Became Mrs. Spendlove. New York: Creative Age Press. pp. 56–57.
- ^ Ellmann, p. 842
- ^ Carens (1979) p. 22
- ^ O'Connor, 107–108
- ^ O'Connor, p. 89
- ^ O'Connor, pp. 113–127
- ^ "Blake, Caroline | Dictionary of Irish Biography". www.dib.ie. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
- ^ O'Connor, p. 121
- ^ O'Connor, p. 232
- ^ O'Connor, pp. 173–174
- ^ "President's nominees for Seanad". Houses of the Oireachtas. 6 December 1922. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
- ^ "Oliver St. John Gogarty". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- ISBN 9780800842499.
- ^ O'Connor, p. 97
- ^ O'Connor, pp. 194–199
- ^ Carens (1979) pp.112–113
- ^ Historical Debates Website. Seanad Éireann Wild Birds Protection Bill, 1929—Report. Tithe an Oireachteas. 19 August 2009. "Seanad Éireann – Volume 13 – 12 December, 1929 – Wild Birds Protection Bill, 1929—Report". Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2009.
- ^ Historical Debates Website. Seanad Éireann Central Fund Bill, 1936—Report and Final Stages. Tithe an Oireachteas. 19 August 2009. "Seanad Éireann – Volume 20 – 25 March, 1936 – Public Business. – Central Fund Bill, 1936—(Certified Money Bill)—Report and Final Stages". Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2009.
- ^ O'Connor, pp.246–254
- ^ Carens, pp. 31–37
- ^ Carens, pp. 42–46
- ^ "Oliver St. John Gogarty". Olympedia. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
- ^ Carens, p. 23
- ^ O'Connor, p. 255
- ^ Carens, p. 266
- ^ O'Connor, pp.280–283
- ^ O'Connor, p. 279
- ^ Knowlson, James (1996). Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett. London: Bloomsbury.
- ^ Foster, Robert (2003). W. B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. II: The Arch-Poet 1915–1939. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 405.
- ^ O'Connor, p. 284
- ISBN 9780838778845.
- ISBN 9780953438921.
- ^ Williams, p. 2
- ^ O'Connor, pp. 51–52
- ^ Carens, pp. 25–26
- ^ Ellmann, p. 214
- ^ Carens, pp. 10–21
- ^ Carens, pp. 7–8
- ^ O Lochlainn, Colm. More Irish Street Ballads. pp. 32–33.
- ^ "The Lay of Oliver Gogarty". www.babelmatrix.org. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
- ^ "Oliver St. John Gogarty: Silence Would Never Do (1987)". www.imdb.com. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
- ^ "Grants and Confirmations of Arms Volume M". National Library of Ireland. p. 88. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
Biography
- Carens, James (1979). Surpassing Wit. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 22.
- Ellmann, Richard (1982). James Joyce. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-503103-4.
- O'Connor, Ulick (1963). Oliver St. John Gogarty: A Poet and His Times. London: Jonathan Cape.
- 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
- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Oliver St. John Gogarty". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.