Oliver Duane Gogarty, who died peacefully on Christmas Day, 1999, had been for over 60 years one of the most distinguished, loyal and colourful members of the Irish Bar.
The son of Oliver St John Gogarty, he was educated at Downside Abbey and in Oxford University and was called to the Bar in the Trinity term of 1931.
He commenced practice on the Midland Circuit and remained as a junior on it until 1948, when he was called to the Inner Bar and remained practising as a barrister as his exclusive occupation until shortly before his death.
As a barrister he had a number of important and sterling qualities. He was a man of total integrity in his relationship with his colleagues, with his clients and in his conduct before the court.
As an advocate he was deceptively persuasive, relying not only on the logic and intelligence of his submissions, but - particularly in trials by jury - on a certain style which one sometimes felt was taken from an earlier age, but which in my experience was highly effective. His irrepressible sense of humour did not desert him even in court and while he never engaged in that most dangerous of activities - for either an advocate or a judge - of attempting to create laughter in court, his whispered asides and comments on the fringe of the courtroom relieved the pressure and gloom of many a day's work for his colleagues.
Although he remained inflexibly loyal to the Bar, he was a man of many varied talents and interests outside of and detached from the law.
He had an abiding love of literature, which one might expect from a son of Oliver St John Gogarty. He read well and widely and had an undoubted gift for good writing. A legal opinion written by him was limpidly clear and his personal correspondence had a touch of elegance not now frequently encountered.
He had, of course, in his youth been brought up in Galway, partly in his much loved Renvyle, and was very much a countryman with a keen interest in country sports, being a skilled and, most importantly, a reflective fisherman, a good sporting shot and an irresistible sporting companion.
Nol Gogarty, as he was universally known, was a very private man. His happy marriage to Sheila Flynn, the distress of her long illness and the sadness of her untimely death were matters which deeply but very privately affected him.
As a companion his most enduring and obvious characteristic was his sense of humour, but his most fundamental principle, in my view, was his loyalty. He had for his father and his father's achievements and writings an intense filial piety. He defended his character, career and writings from criticism with skill and energy whenever that was necessary.
One of the strongest of all his loyalties and one of the most consistent was to his friends. To have acquired his friendship was to have acquired an asset which was the subject of much joy and high entertainment but also an object of lasting value.
Having been a friend and colleague of Nol Gogarty for over 50 years, I believe that I join a great number of people in different parts of the country and of different occupations who deeply mourn his loss. May he rest in peace.
T.A.F.