Garret Desmond FitzGerald was an Irish Fine Gael politician, economist and barrister who served twice as Taoiseach, serving from 1981 to 1982 and 1982 to 1987.
46 Facts About Garret FitzGerald
2.
Garret FitzGerald served as Leader of Fine Gael from 1977 to 1987 and was twice Leader of the Opposition between 1977 and 1982; he was previously Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1973 to 1977.
3.
Garret FitzGerald was the son of Desmond FitzGerald, the first foreign minister of the Irish Free State.
4.
At the time of his death, Garret FitzGerald was president of the Institute of International and European Affairs and a columnist for The Irish Times, and had made occasional appearances on television programmes.
5.
Garret FitzGerald was born in Ballsbridge, Dublin, in 1926, son of Desmond FitzGerald and Mabel McConnell Fitzgerald.
6.
Garret FitzGerald's mother was involved in politics, and it was through her that his father became political.
7.
Garret FitzGerald had three older brothers, Desmond, Pierce, and Fergus.
8.
Garret FitzGerald's father was born and raised in London and was Minister for External Affairs at the time of his son's birth.
9.
Garret FitzGerald was the son of a labourer who had emigrated from Skeheenarinky in County Tipperary, joined the Irish Volunteers in 1914, and fought during the 1916 Easter Rising.
10.
Garret FitzGerald senior had been active in Sinn Fein during the Irish War of Independence and had been one of the founders of Cumann na nGaedheal.
11.
Garret FitzGerald's mother, the former Mabel Washington McConnell, was a nationalist and republican of Ulster Protestant descent, although later in life she converted to Catholicism.
12.
Garret FitzGerald was educated at the Jesuit Belvedere College and University College Dublin, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts honours degree in history, French and Spanish in 1946, later returning to complete a PhD in economics which he obtained in 1968; his doctoral thesis was published the following year, titled Planning in Ireland.
13.
Garret FitzGerald was deeply interested in the politics of the Spanish Civil War and World War II.
14.
Garret FitzGerald remained with Aer Lingus until 1958; the following year, after undertaking a study of the economics of Irish industry at Trinity College Dublin, he became a lecturer in economics at UCD.
15.
Garret FitzGerald was eager to enter politics, and it was suggested by several members of Fianna Fail, including Charles Haughey and Michael Yeats, that he should join that party.
16.
Ultimately, Garret FitzGerald, made his entry into party politics under the banner of Fine Gael.
17.
Garret FitzGerald attached himself to the liberal wing of Fine Gael, which rallied around the Just Society programme written by Declan Costello.
18.
Garret FitzGerald was elected to Seanad Eireann for the Industrial and Commercial Panel in 1965 and soon built up his political profile.
19.
Garret FitzGerald was elected to Dail Eireann at the 1969 general election, for the Dublin South-East constituency, the same year he obtained his PhD for a thesis later published under the title "Planning in Ireland".
20.
Garret FitzGerald became an important figure almost immediately in the parliamentary party, and his liberal ideas were seen as a counterweight to the conservative leader, Liam Cosgrave.
21.
Garret FitzGerald was an opponent of the US bombing of North Vietnam.
22.
Garret FitzGerald hoped that he would take over as Minister for Finance, particularly after a good performance in a pre-election debate with the then Minister for Finance George Colley.
23.
However, the position went to Richie Ryan, with Garret FitzGerald becoming Minister for Foreign Affairs.
24.
Garret FitzGerald, firmly ensconced as Foreign Minister, was free from any blame due to other Ministers' mishandling of the economy.
25.
Liam Cosgrave resigned as party leader, and Garret FitzGerald was chosen by acclamation to succeed him.
26.
Garret FitzGerald immediately appointed a General-Secretary to oversee all of this, a tactic copied from Fianna Fail.
27.
Garret FitzGerald then ordered Gardai to remove the families from the meeting.
28.
Garret FitzGerald's response was, in the words of Eamonn Sweeney, to "lay all the blame for the hunger strikers on the republican movement and to suggest an immediate unilateral end to their military campaign".
29.
In light of this loss of supply, Garret FitzGerald went to Aras an Uachtarain to request an immediate dissolution of the Dail from the president, Patrick Hillery.
30.
When Garret FitzGerald attended a Bilderberg meeting in 1985, his rival Haughey suggested it had links with NATO, thus contravening Ireland's official position of neutrality.
31.
Garret FitzGerald set up the New Ireland Forum in 1983, which brought together representatives of the constitutional political parties in the Republic and the nationalist SDLP from Northern Ireland.
32.
Garret FitzGerald's government had passed the Extradition Act 1987, which ended the long-standing defence against extradition of suspects who could plead that an act of violence in Northern Ireland or Britain was a political offence.
33.
In 1986, Garret FitzGerald attempted to reshuffle his cabinet, but certain ministers, notably Barry Desmond, refused to move from his Health and Social Welfare portfolio.
34.
Stymied by the economic crisis, Garret FitzGerald tried to rescue some of his ambitions to reform the state, and he proposed, in the middle of 1986, a referendum to change the constitution to allow for divorce.
35.
Garret FitzGerald retired as leader of Fine Gael immediately after the election by the Dail of Haughey as Taoiseach, to be replaced by Alan Dukes.
36.
Garret FitzGerald retired completely from politics at the 1992 general election.
37.
Garret FitzGerald came out of retirement to campaign for a "yes" vote in the second Irish referendum on the EU's Treaty of Nice, held in 2002.
38.
Garret FitzGerald held the post of Chancellor of the National University of Ireland from 1997 to 2009.
39.
In March 2000, Garret FitzGerald was on the board of directors of Election.
40.
Garret FitzGerald took a leading part in the campaign for a second referendum on the EU's Treaty of Lisbon in 2009.
41.
Garret FitzGerald argued for Ireland to continue with European integration.
42.
In 2009, Garret FitzGerald received a new ministerial car, the first and only one to be purchased by the state since an economic recession hit Ireland in 2008.
43.
In 2010, Garret FitzGerald appeared on RTE's "Top 40 Irishmen" list.
44.
Garret FitzGerald was vice-president of the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland for his last 20 years.
45.
On 5 May 2011, it was reported that Garret FitzGerald was seriously ill in a Dublin hospital.
46.
Garret FitzGerald's death occurred on the third day of Queen Elizabeth II's state visit to the Republic of Ireland, an event designed to mark the completion of the Northern Ireland peace process that had been "built on the foundations" of FitzGerald's Hillsborough Agreement with Margaret Thatcher in 1985.