Richie Goulding
Richie Goulding
In Brief
Joyce modeled Stephen's "uncle Richie" and "aunt Sara" Goulding on his mother's brother William Murray and William's wife, Josephine Giltrap Murray. Richie Goulding works as a "costdrawer" or cost accountant (a position that involves scrutinizing the costs of a business to improve its management) in a firm of Dublin solicitors called "Collis and Ward." In Proteus Stephen thinks of him doing his paperwork at home in the morning. Wandering Rocks shows Goulding moving about town with his "costbag" of work papers. In Sirens he joins Bloom for an early supper in the Ormond hotel dining room.
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Josephine Murray was Joyce's favorite aunt, and the
fact that Stephen thinks of his aunt as the reason for
visiting Strasburg Terrace—"Am
I going to aunt Sara's or not?"—suggests that he
may hold a similar affection. Richie Goulding is another
matter. In addition to his domineering
manner with his children and wife, the novel glances
several times at his alcoholism. Simon Dedalus' penchant for
calling him "the drunken little costdrawer"
may be hypocritical, but
Bloom's thoughts about how Richie used to be the life of the
party and now is "Paying the
piper" support the inference that he is a chronic
abuser. Richie also suffers from the more comical vice of
pretension. In Hades Bloom thinks of how he likes to
add his own name to the legal firm's moniker: "Goulding,
Collis and Ward he calls the firm." This is surely
a fabrication, as Goulding is not an attorney and lives in a
shabby part of town. Stephen thinks of his relative as "nuncle
Richie," a phrase with unflattering Shakespearean
associations.
Joyce did not alter his uncle's employment much in turning
him into Richie Goulding. M. C. Rintoul's Dictionary of
Real People and Places in Fiction (Routledge, 1993)
notes that William Murray "was employed as a billing clerk in
a well-known firm of Dublin solicitors" (696). Vivien Igoe
confirms this, noting that Murray "worked as a cost accountant
at the law agency of James J. Giltrap, at 2 Morgan Place, near
the Four Courts. In 1899 on the death of Mr Giltrap, his
father-in-law, he moved to a firm of solicitors, Collis &
Ward, at 23 Dame Street." Igoe observes also that, "Like
Richie, Murray was fond of music and opera." Joyce reflects
this passion in Proteus by having Richie "drone" and
"whistle" strains of Verdi's Il Trovatore, all the
while praising the aria to Stephen.
Richie Goulding seems to have a reputation as a practical joker. In Lestrygonians Bloom wonders if he may have been responsible for the postcard sent to Denis Breen: "U.P.: up. I'll take my oath that's Alf Bergan or Richie Goulding. Wrote it for a lark in the Scotch house I bet anything." If Bloom is right, then it is hugely ironic that, as Breen stomps around town in Wandering Rocks looking for legal help in taking out an action of libel against the perpetrators, he settles on the very solicitors who employ Goulding: "Denis Breen with his tomes, weary of having waited an hour in John Henry Menton's office, led his wife over O'Connell bridge, bound for the office of Messrs Collis and Ward."
