Sir John Gray

Several times in Ulysses, characters pass by the statue erected on Sackville Street (the heart of the downtown, now O'Connell Street) to "Sir John Gray." Gray was a civic-minded patriot of many accomplishments: physician, journalist, politician. More than anyone else, he was responsible for the improvement in Dublin's water supply in the 1860s—a great civic boon that prompted the erection of the statue four years after Gray's death in 1875.

John Hunt 2014

Gray's statue today. In the background, the Spire of Dublin rises where Nelson's Pillar once stood. Source: Gareth Collins.

2003 photograph of Gray's monument in the Glasnevin cemetery, by Jtdirl. This sculpture is not mentioned in the novel. Source: Wikimedia Commons.