Oliver St. John Gogarty was certainly a major figure on the Irish literary scene, and he is reputed to have saved some people from drowning in addition to whatever other benefits he may have conferred on the population at large through his medical ministerings.
But he was hardly a saint, though he did indirectly claim to be Jesus at one stage.
None of that stopped the pub, which carries his name in Dublin's Temple Bar, advertising themselves on Newstalk radio as the Oliver SAINT John Gogarty pub. It used to drive me mad and I actually went in to the pub (below) one day and complained. The ad has been gone a good while and I don't really claim any credit for its demise. I'm sure there were many literary heavyweights weighing in on that one. Assuming, of course that such people actually listen to Newstalk.
And come to think of it, with the recent surge in canonisations in Rome, there is no reason why Gogarty should not be included in the list. We have no reason to believe he is not in heaven making a holy nuisance of himself and he would certainly outshine some of the more recently canonised in that place.
A recent view of The Pub
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