People’s champion shunned limelight

OVER 33 sometimes tedious, and more often entertaining, days in the witness box at Dublin Castle in 1999, James Gogarty achieved a fame that few octogenarians experience.

The retired engineer attained a status not dissimilar to that currently enjoyed by consumer champion Eddie Hobbs in the manner in which he became, almost overnight, a folk hero.

Mr Gogarty, who was dubbed the People’s Pensioner, was an instant hit with the public as the key whistleblower in the Planning Tribunal with his fingering of Fianna Fáil big gun Ray Burke in corrupt practices.