Sir, – Jimmy Murphy (“The real Ginger Man and Dublin’s secret kingdom of alcohol and lawless camaraderie”, Books, April 23rd) recites the accepted wisdom when it comes to the death of Gainor Crist, model for The Ginger Man’s Sebastian Dangerfield.
Nonetheless, one person was not so certain that Crist died in the 1960s on a Canary Island quayside – JP Donleavy himself.
Donleavy always maintained that there was no proof Crist died in Tenerife, and continued to cling to his doubts even after making a pilgrimage to see his grave.
Donleavy told the Guardian newspaper, and others, of seeing a man in the Grafton Street area of Dublin during the early 1990s whom he believed to be Crist.
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In a 2006 article, Brian McDonald wrote also of photographs received by Donleavy: “sent anonymously. A man in the American Midwest. The right age. The right look. Donleavy never threw them away.” – Yours, etc,
SIMON MILLS,
Coneyglen,
Station Road.
