Random Excerpt from Oliver St. John Gogarty

You know what I'm looking for--and of course I found a double whammy--Joyce and the Poddle redux--

From Rolling Down the Lea
Oliver St. John Gogarty

Yes, Brinsley is the last left of the men of genius whom I used to know in the old town. There was Joyce, who loved the Liffey and wrote about its rolling as no other man could. Ann Livia Plurabelle impressed Pat Colum because (I think he said) 133 rivers mingle with its wave. He said this in America, where Joyce is greatly esteemed for the scope of this sort of thing which his books afford: America, the home of the smoke-signal.

I know only two rivers that run into the Liffey in its course between Guinness's [west side of the city] and the Custom House [east side of the city]. One, I forget the name of it--Bradoge, I think--comes down from under Grangegorman Lunatic Asylum and enters Anna Liffey at the end of East Arran Street. They say that the trout in it think a lot of themselves. This megalomania may be due to their river passing under Grangegorman. The other, and this is the one that matters just now, has 'The Dolphin' disporting by its wave. You cannot see the Poddle because they have put it in a pipe. But it flows under 'The Dolphin'--you can hear it in the cellars--but it never gets into the wrong pipe.

You'll all be thrilled to know that the third volume in this Omnibus contains a chapter titled "Chamber Music" and purports to be the story behind the Martello Tower at Sandycove.  I was just glancing through it now and there is much of interest to those who have not already read it.

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