Oliver St John Gogarty was called by Yeats 'one of the great lyric poets of the age'. Asquith thought Gogarty the wittiest man in London. His brilliant conversation was said to have the flavour of Wilde's, and exemplified the rich Dublin talk of his time. Gogarty was also skilful surgeon, a senator, a playwright, a champion athlete and swimmer and author of two renowned books, As I Was Going Down Sackville Street and Tumbling in the Hay.

He was the garrulous and flamboyant drinking companion of James Joyce, providing the character of Buck Mulligan for Ulysses, the exuberant and mocking wit who delighted George Moore, and a friend and inspiration to the man who was high priest of the Irish literary renaissance, William Butler Yeats. From his boisterous student days, through the time of the Irish Civil War, and in all his years as a successful surgeon and unrivalled conversationalist, Gogarty embodied the life of Dublin during one of its richest and most turbulent periods.

Gogarty himself appointed Ulick O'Connor to be his biographer. O'Connor spent six years researching published and unpublished material, as well as collecting the reminiscences of Gogarty's many friends. The result is a surprising and intimate portrait of a great Irishman and a stirring period of Irish history.