Gillian Reynolds

A burnt-out case: the many lives of Dr Anthony Clare

Apart from his radio work, the psychiatrist was running hospitals, chairing conferences and campaigning to the point of exhaustion, his biographers reveal

Anthony Clare c. 1985. Credit: Getty Images

Those who best remember Dr Anthony Clare (1942-2007) for his broadcasting are firmly reminded by this biography that we didn’t know the half of him.

Its authors are Brendan Kelly, professor of psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry and Muiris Houston, a columnist for the Medical Independent and the Irish Times. Theirs is a meticulously sourced, clearly arranged, carefully assembled account of Clare’s packed life and multiple achievements. Yet through it thrums a sense that you can only really understand him if (a) you are a psychiatrist and (b) you are Irish.

Born in Dublin, Clare was the youngest of three children, the only son. His mother was fiercely ambitious for him; his father was a solicitor. At Dublin’s Gonzaga College Anthony did well in English and arithmetic, read voraciously, started a school newspaper, acted, became a star debater and began learning the power of words, spoken and written. At 17, he chose to become a doctor rather than a lawyer, but at University College, Dublin he immediately joined the debating society. Over his six undergraduate years he won every debate trophy going, and met Jane Hogan, a fellow undergraduate reading arts. They married in 1966 and had seven children. From first to last she seems to have read and re-read him like a cherished book, comprehending its every footnote.

His son recalls how in later life Anthony Clare became ‘depressed, withdrawn and harried’

Kelly and Houston have arranged their book in eight sections, each covering an aspect of Clare’s life. To anyone who only knew Clare as a broadcaster it will be an eye-opener. He chose psychiatry as his field in the 1960s when it was riven by internal divisions but gaining massive external influence. The book spells out how he won arguments and achieved eminence both in his field and as a communicator, why he moved to London in 1983 and back to Dublin in 1989, and suggests why he fell into final depression.

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