Joyce modeled Stephen's "uncle Richie" and "aunt Sara" Goulding on his mother's brother William Murray and William's wife, Josephine Giltrap Murray. Richie Goulding works as a "costdrawer" or cost accountant (a position that involves scrutinizing the costs of a business to improve its management) in a firm of Dublin solicitors called "Collis and Ward." In Proteus Stephen thinks of him doing his paperwork at home in the morning. Wandering Rocks shows Goulding moving about town with his "costbag" of work papers. In Sirens he joins Bloom for an early supper in the Ormond hotel dining room.

Josephine Murray was Joyce's favorite aunt, and the fact that Stephen thinks of his aunt as the reason for visiting Strasburg Terrace—"Am I going to aunt Sara's or not?"—suggests that he may hold a similar affection. Richie Goulding is another matter. In addition to his domineering manner with his children and wife, the novel glances several times at his alcoholism. Simon Dedalus' penchant for calling him "the drunken little costdrawer" may be hypocritical, but Bloom's thoughts about how Richie used to be the life of the party and now is "Paying the piper" support the inference that he is a chronic abuser. Richie also suffers from the more comical vice of pretension. In Hades Bloom thinks of how he likes to add his own name to the legal firm's moniker: "Goulding, Collis and Ward he calls the firm." This is surely a fabrication, as Goulding is not an attorney and lives in a shabby part of town. Stephen thinks of his relative as "nuncle Richie," a phrase with unflattering Shakespearean associations.  

Joyce did not alter his uncle's employment much in turning him into Richie Goulding. M. C. Rintoul's Dictionary of Real People and Places in Fiction (Routledge, 1993) notes that William Murray "was employed as a billing clerk in a well-known firm of Dublin solicitors" (696). Vivien Igoe confirms this, noting that Murray "worked as a cost accountant at the law agency of James J. Giltrap, at 2 Morgan Place, near the Four Courts. In 1899 on the death of Mr Giltrap, his father-in-law, he moved to a firm of solicitors, Collis & Ward, at 23 Dame Street." Igoe observes also that, "Like Richie, Murray was fond of music and opera." Joyce reflects this passion in Proteus by having Richie "drone" and "whistle" strains of Verdi's Il Trovatore, all the while praising the aria to Stephen.

Richie Goulding seems to have a reputation as a practical joker. In Lestrygonians Bloom wonders if he may have been responsible for the postcard sent to Denis Breen: "U.P.: up. I'll take my oath that's Alf Bergan or Richie Goulding. Wrote it for a lark in the Scotch house I bet anything." If Bloom is right, then it is hugely ironic that, as Breen stomps around town in Wandering Rocks looking for legal help in taking out an action of libel against the perpetrators, he settles on the very solicitors who employ Goulding: "Denis Breen with his tomes, weary of having waited an hour in John Henry Menton's office, led his wife over O'Connell bridge, bound for the office of Messrs Collis and Ward."

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