Desmond FitzGerald (politician)
Desmond FitzGerald | |
---|---|
Minister for Defence | |
In office 23 June 1927 – 9 March 1932 | |
President | W. T. Cosgrave |
Preceded by | Peter Hughes |
Succeeded by | Frank Aiken |
Minister for External Affairs | |
In office 30 August 1922 – 23 June 1927 | |
President | W. T. Cosgrave |
Preceded by | Michael Hayes |
Succeeded by | Kevin O'Higgins |
Minister for Publicity | |
In office 26 August 1921 – 9 September 1922 | |
President | W. T. Cosgrave |
Preceded by | Office created |
Succeeded by | Office abolished |
Director of Publicity | |
In office 17 June 1919 – 11 February 1921 | |
Preceded by | Laurence Ginnell |
Succeeded by | Erskine Childers |
Senator | |
In office 7 September 1938 – 8 September 1943 | |
Constituency | Administrative Panel |
Teachta Dála | |
In office February 1932 – July 1937 | |
Constituency | Carlow–Kilkenny |
In office May 1921 – February 1932 | |
Constituency | Dublin County |
In office December 1918 – May 1921 | |
Constituency | Dublin Pembroke |
Personal details | |
Born | Thomas Joseph FitzGerald 13 February 1888 Forest Gate, Essex, England |
Died | 9 April 1947 Ballsbridge, Dublin, Ireland | (aged 59)
Nationality | Irish |
Political party |
|
Spouse | |
Children | 4, including Garret |
Relatives |
|
Education | St Bonaventure's |
Alma mater | [citation needed] |
Desmond FitzGerald (13 February 1888 – 9 April 1947) was an Irish revolutionary, poet, publicist and Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for Defence from 1927 to 1932, Minister for External Affairs from 1922 to 1927, Minister for Publicity from 1921 to 1922 and Director of Publicity from 1919 to 1921. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1918 to 1937. He was a Senator for the Administrative Panel from 1938 to 1943.[1]
Early life
Desmond FitzGerald was born Thomas Joseph FitzGerald in Forest Gate in West Ham, Essex in 1888.[2] His parents were Patrick Fitzgerald (1831–1908), a labourer from south Tipperary, and Mary Anne Scollard (1847–1927) from Castleisland, County Kerry. He changed his first name as a teenager to the more romantic "Desmond", and first visited Ireland in 1910.[3] He was a student at St Bonaventure's.[4]
In London, he was a member of the Tour Eiffel group of poets and writers, which included Ezra Pound, T. E. Hulme, F. S. Flint and another Irish writer, Joseph Campbell. The group was named after the restaurant in which the group met, the Tour Eiffel in Soho.[5][6] In April 1908, FitzGerald and Florence Farr introduced Ezra Pound to the Tour Eiffel group, a meeting out of which the Imagist group was later to emerge.[7]
Marriage and family
In 1911 FitzGerald, a
Irish nationalist
FitzGerald joined the
FitzGerald was released in 1918 when he was elected as a
In May 1919, Erskine Childers, FitzGerald's friend and colleague, went to Versailles intending to be part of the Peace Conference. Childers became increasingly frustrated by the high-handed British attitude towards Irish independence. FitzGerald started a mimeograph entitled Weekly Summary of Acts of Aggression by the Enemy in July 1919. By November he had joined with Childers to produce the Irish Bulletin. For twenty-two months they publicized the crimes of England, with the purpose of bolstering the Dáil's credibility with Sinn Féin. Despite the Dáil's complaint in 1920 that the lists were "inadequate", the momentum behind the Propaganda Department threw their opponents into confusion.[16] During the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921) the Bulletin managed to publicise the aims of the Irish Republic to the wider world with increasing success, and removed the likelihood of the conflict being widened. In devising a strategy to retain Ulster, leading republican Ernest Blythe believed a blockade would be disastrous for Belfast.[17] Conversely, Seán MacEntee demanded a response to what he considered to be a war of extermination against nationalism; there was, he argued, "the potent weapon of blockade". Many leading republicans were firmly against it: FitzGerald declared a blockade would be tantamount "to a vote for partition".[18] The Dáil's department seemed to be winning the propaganda war with the Castle, whose operations could not convince the public. The Secretariat was convinced the Bulletin should continue, when its papers and materials were seized in a raid.[19] FitzGerald was arrested in March 1921, but was released. In late August 1921 Éamon de Valera reshuffled his Cabinet, in which FitzGerald was not included; although in replacing Childers he was named Minister of Publicity.[20] He was one of the TDs who were unsuccessful in persuading de Valera to join the negotiators of the Anglo-Irish Treaty that was signed on 6 December.
Government minister
FitzGerald supported the Treaty. On 30 August 1922, he was designated the
FitzGerald, by letter dated 17 April 1923, applied on behalf of the Irish Free State for membership of the League of Nations.[21] Ireland was admitted to membership the following year. FitzGerald also represented the new state at the Imperial Conferences. In 1927 FitzGerald became Minister for Defence. Following the defeat of the government in 1932 he remained as a TD until 1937. In 1938, he was elected to Seanad Éireann, where he remained until retiring from politics in 1943.
Descendants
One of his sons, Garret FitzGerald, likewise served as Minister for Foreign Affairs in the 1970s and Taoiseach on two occasions in the 1980s.
Desmond FitzGerald died on 9 April 1947 in Dublin, aged 59.
See also
References
- ^ "Desmond FitzGerald". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
- ^ Murphy, William. "FitzGerald, (Thomas Joseph) Desmond". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
- ^ Desmond's Rising: Memoirs 1913 to Easter 1916, with foreword by Garret FitzGerald; Liberties Press, Dublin, published 1968 and 2006; pp.9, 11.
- ^ Walker, John. "From Forest Gate to Irish Taoiseach, via the Easter rising". Archived from the original on 17 May 2021. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
- ^ Carr, Helen, The Verse Revolutionaries: Ezra Pound, H.D. and The Imagists. Random House.
- ^ Carr, Helen. The Verse Revolutionaries: Ezra Pound, H.D. and The Imagists (Kindle Location 167). Random House. Kindle Edition.
- ^ Carr, Helen. The Verse Revolutionaries: Ezra Pound, H.D. and The Imagists (Kindle Location 3438). Random House. Kindle Edition.
- ^ C Townshend, "Easter 1916", (London 2006), p.44-5.
- ^ Townshend, p.82.
- ISBN 978-0191651267. Archivedfrom the original on 6 May 2017. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
- ^ J.M. Heuston, "Headquarters Battalion, Army of the Irish Republic, Easter Week, 1916" (Tallaght 1966), p.44. Townshend, p.210.
- ^ Townshend, p.264.
- ^ Desmond's Rising Memoirs 1913 to Easter 1916, op.cit., pp.142-144.
- ^ "Desmond FitzGerald". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 18 October 2011. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
- ^ Report of the Propaganda Department, n.d., (May 1920), National Archives of Ireland DE:2/10.
- ^ C Townshend, "The Republic", p.94-6.
- ^ Bureau of Military History WS 939 (Ernest Blythe).
- ^ Townshend, "The Republic", p.177.
- ^ Townshend, "The Republic", p.299.
- ^ Townshend, p.324.
- ^ Irish application to join League of Nations dated 17 April 1923 - (Source: www.difp.ie).
Bibliography
- Papers of Desmond and Mabel FitzGerald, P80: Descriptive Catalogue, UCD Archives, University College Dublin
- Desmond FitzGerald Photographs, UCD Digital Library, University College Dublin. The majority of these photographs arise out of the Civil War, but other smaller series relate to the aftermath of the Easter Rising and to the War of Independence. There are also other series of army portraits and of historical occasions photographs.
- Townshend, Charles, Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion (London 2006)
- Townshend, C, The Republic: The Fight For Irish Independence (London 2014)
- Alexander Thom and Son Ltd. 1923. p. – via Wikisource. . . Dublin: