Gabriel Patrick Duffy (1942–2008) was an author and philosopher born in

Dublin, Ireland Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...

, and is best known for his

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

, ''Sham to Rock''. Duffy emigrated to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1963, where he worked as an accountant. He then worked in recruitment, subsequently establishing and building up Gabriel Duffy, which in the 1980s became a well known and successful financial recruitment consultancy. When, as a result of the

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

in the early 1990s, the business hit difficulties, he turned full-time to his great love, writing. He has two daughters and was friendly with the novelist Colin Wilson. Duffy died of peritonitis in his

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

flat in early December, 2008.

Sham to Rock ''"Growing Up in Forties and Fifties Dublin"''

Sham to Rock was first published in 2003 by Aengus books. It is an autobiographical account of the first 17 years of Duffy's life, and focuses on his physical, mental and social maturation in a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

society. The title symbolises the movement from the sham hypocrisy of the immediate post-war years to a more open and

cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

approach to life: rock. The book was well received in the media, with the ''Sunday Independent'' describing it as "lively and evocative, as well as beautifully and economically written" while The Irish World stated that "his observations ..will keep you riveted right through to the very last page". However, the sales of Sham to Rock were lower than expected and, given this, there were no further editions. A sequel to Sham to Rock has been drafted, but not yet published.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duffy, Gabriel 20th-century Irish writers Writers from Dublin (city) 1942 births 2008 deaths 20th-century Irish philosophers Irish emigrants to the United Kingdom Deaths from peritonitis