Garret FitzGerald | |
|---|---|
.jpg) FitzGerald in 1984 | |
| Taoiseach | |
| In office 14 December 1982 – 10 March 1987 | |
| President | Patrick Hillery |
| Tánaiste | |
| Preceded by | Charles Haughey |
| Succeeded by | Charles Haughey |
| In office 30 June 1981 – 9 March 1982 | |
| Tánaiste | Michael O'Leary |
| Preceded by | Charles Haughey |
| Succeeded by | Charles Haughey |
| Leader of the Opposition | |
| In office 10 March 1982 – 14 December 1982 | |
| President | Patrick Hillery |
| Taoiseach | Charles Haughey |
| Preceded by | Charles Haughey |
| Succeeded by | Charles Haughey |
| In office 5 July 1977 – 30 June 1981 | |
| Taoiseach |
|
| Preceded by | Jack Lynch |
| Succeeded by | Charles Haughey |
| Leader of Fine Gael | |
| In office 1 July 1977 – 10 March 1987 | |
| Deputy | Peter Barry |
| Preceded by | Liam Cosgrave |
| Succeeded by | Alan Dukes |
| Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 14 March 1973 – 5 July 1977 | |
| Taoiseach | Liam Cosgrave |
| Preceded by | Brian Lenihan |
| Succeeded by | Michael O'Kennedy |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office June 1969 – November 1992 | |
| Constituency | Dublin South-East |
| Senator | |
| In office 23 June 1965 – 18 June 1969 | |
| Constituency | Industrial and Commercial Panel |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1926-02-09)9 February 1926 Ballsbridge, Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 19 May 2011(2011-05-19) (aged 85) Phibsborough, Dublin, Ireland |
| Resting place | Shanganagh Cemetery, Shankill, Dublin |
| Political party | Fine Gael |
| Spouse | |
| Relations | Eithne FitzGerald (daughter-in-law) |
| Children | 3, includingJohn |
| Parents |
|
| Education | Belvedere College |
| Alma mater | |
| Nickname | "Garret the Good"[1] |
Garret Desmond FitzGerald (9 February 1926 – 19 May 2011) was an IrishFine Gael politician, economist, and barrister who served twice asTaoiseach, serving from 1981 to 1982 and 1982 to 1987. He served asLeader of Fine Gael from 1977 to 1987 and was twiceLeader of the Opposition between 1977 and 1982; he was previouslyMinister for Foreign Affairs from 1973 to 1977. FitzGerald served as aTeachta Dála (TD) from 1969 to 1992 and was aSenator for theIndustrial and Commercial Panel from 1965 to 1969.
He was the son ofDesmond FitzGerald, the firstforeign minister of theIrish Free State. At the time of his death, FitzGerald was president of theInstitute of International and European Affairs[2] and a columnist forThe Irish Times, and had made occasional appearances on television programmes.[3]
Garret FitzGerald was born inBallsbridge, Dublin, in 1926, son ofDesmond FitzGerald andMabel McConnell.[4] His mother was involved in politics; it was through her that his father also became political. He had three elder brothers,Desmond (1911–1987), Pierce (1914–1986), and Fergus (1920–1983). His father was born and raised in London and was the Minister for External Affairs at the time of his son's birth.[5] He was the son of a labourer who had emigrated fromSkeheenarinky in County Tipperary, joined theIrish Volunteers in 1914, and fought during the1916 Easter Rising. FitzGerald senior had been active inSinn Féin during theIrish War of Independence and had been one of the founders ofCumann na nGaedheal. The party was formed to support theAnglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which created theIrish Free State.[6]
Although a senior figure on the pro-treaty side of Ireland's political divide, FitzGerald senior had remained friendly with anti-Treatyrepublicans, such as Belfast manSeán MacEntee, a minister inÉamon de Valera's government and father-in-law ofConor Cruise O'Brien. The families ofPatrick McGilligan andErnest Blythe were also frequent visitors to the FitzGerald household. FitzGerald's mother, the former Mabel Washington McConnell, was anationalist and republican ofUlster Protestant descent. However, later in life she converted to Catholicism.[7] Her son would later describe his political objective as the creation of a pluralist Ireland where the northern Protestants of his mother's family tradition and the southern Catholics of his father's could feel equally at home.[8]
FitzGerald was educated at theJesuitBelvedere College andUniversity College Dublin (UCD), from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Artshonours degree in history, French and Spanish in 1946, later returning to complete a PhD in economics which he obtained in 1968; hisdoctoral thesis was published the following year, titledPlanning in Ireland. He was deeply interested in the politics of theSpanish Civil War andWorld War II. A bright student who counted among his contemporaries in UCD his future political rival,Charles Haughey, who also knew Joan O'Farrell (1923–1999), aLiverpool-born fellow student,[9] whom FitzGerald married in 1947. Their children wereJohn, Mary, and Mark.[10]
Following his university education, in 1947, he started working withAer Lingus, the state airline of Ireland, and became an authority on the strategic economic planning of transport. During this time, he wrote many newspaper articles, was the Irish correspondent for British magazineThe Economist,[6] and was encouraged to write onNational Accounts and economics by the features editor[who?] inthe Irish Times. He remained with Aer Lingus until 1958; the following year, after undertaking a study of the economics of Irish industry atTrinity College Dublin, he became a lecturer in economics at UCD.[11]
FitzGerald qualified as a barrister, from theKing's Inns of Ireland,[12] and spoke French fluently.[13][a]
FitzGerald was eager to enter politics. Despite his pro-Treaty roots, several members ofFianna Fáil, including Charles Haughey andMichael Yeats, suggested that he should join that party.[b] Ultimately, FitzGerald made his entry into party politics under the banner of Fine Gael, of which his father had been a founding member. He attached himself to the party's liberal wing, which rallied around the Just Society programme written byDeclan Costello. FitzGerald was elected toSeanad Éireann for theIndustrial and Commercial Panel in 1965[15] and soon built up his political profile. FitzGerald was elected to Dáil Éireann at the1969 general election, for theDublin South-East constituency,[16] the same year he obtained his PhD for a thesis later published under the title "Planning in Ireland". He 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. The difference in political outlook and FitzGerald's ambitions for the Fine Gael leadership resulted in profound tensions[citation needed] between the two men. In his leadership address to the 1972 Fine GaelArdfheis in Cork, Cosgrave referred to the "mongrel foxes" who should be rooted out of the party,[citation needed] a reference seen by many as an attack on FitzGerald's efforts to unseat him as leader.
FitzGerald was an opponent of the US bombing ofNorth Vietnam.[17]
.jpg)
After the1973 general election, Fine Gael entered office ina coalition government with theLabour Party, with Liam Cosgrave as Taoiseach. FitzGerald hoped[18] that he would take over as Minister for Finance, particularly after a good performance in a pre-election debate with the then Minister for FinanceGeorge Colley. However, the position went toRichie Ryan, with FitzGerald becomingMinister for Foreign Affairs. FitzGerald's father had held that same post in a government led by Liam Cosgrave's fatherW. T. Cosgrave, fifty years earlier. His appointment toIveagh House (the headquarters of theDepartment of Foreign Affairs) would have a significant effect on FitzGerald's career and the future of Fine Gael. Cosgrave was suspicious of FitzGerald's liberal ideas and believed that he had designs on the leadership. During his period at Foreign Affairs, FitzGerald developed a good relationship with Liam Cosgrave, and all the tension between them in opposition disappeared.
The minister's role had changed substantially since his father's day. Ireland was no longer a member of theCommonwealth of Nations, but had in 1973 joined theEuropean Economic Community (EEC), the organisation which would later become theEuropean Union (EU). FitzGerald, firmly ensconced as Foreign Minister, was free from any blame due to other Ministers' mishandling of the economy. If anything, his tenure at the Department of Foreign Affairs helped him eventually achieve the party's leadership. His innovative views, energy and fluency in French won him – and through him, Ireland – a status in European affairs far exceeding the country's size and ensured that the first Irish Presidency of the European Council in 1975 was a noted success.[19]
FitzGerald's policy towards church-state relations, however, brought him into a confrontation with the Roman Catholic church, whose "special position" in the Republic had been enshrined in theconstitution until theReferendum of December 1972. FitzGerald, in 1973, met theCardinal Secretary of State,Agostino Casaroli, and proposed to modify the Republic's Constitution further to remove laws with overtly Catholic foundations, such as the bans on divorce and contraception, as well as to relax the public stigmas in Northern Ireland towards mixed religious marriages and integrated education. Casaroli initially seemed receptive, and the government formally submitted the proposal to theVatican. FitzGerald's vision caused great consternation among the church's hierarchy, however, and in 1977,Pope Paul VI personally met with FitzGerald to tell him that "Ireland was a Catholic country – perhaps the only one left – and it should stay that way. Laws should not be changed in any way that would make the country less Catholic."[20]
In 1977, theNational Coalition of Fine Gael and Labour suffered a disastrous electoral defeat in thegeneral election. Liam Cosgrave resigned as party leader, and FitzGerald was chosen by acclamation to succeed him.[18] In his new role asLeader of the Opposition and party leader, he set about modernising and revitalising Fine Gael. He immediately appointed a General-Secretary to oversee all of this, a tactic copied from Fianna Fáil. Under FitzGerald, Fine Gael experienced a rapid rise in support and popularity. After the November 1982 election, it held only five seats fewer than Fianna Fáil (the parties' closest-ever margin until 2011; at times Fianna Fáil was far larger, on one occasion well over twice as large), with Fine Gael in theOireachtas (i.e. including the Seanad) larger than Fianna Fáil, which had been the dominant force in Irish politics for 40 years.[21]
By the time of the1981 general election, Fine Gael had a party machine that could compete with Fianna Fáil.[citation needed] The party won 65 seats and formed a minority coalition government with the Labour Party and the support of several Independent TDs. FitzGerald was appointed as Taoiseach on 30 June 1981. FitzGerald excluded Richie Ryan,Richard Burke andTom O'Donnell, former Fine Gael stalwarts, from the cabinet.
Two fundamental problems faced FitzGerald during his first period:Northern Ireland and the worsening economic situation. A protest march in support of theH-Blockhunger strikers in July 1981 was harshly dealt with by FitzGerald. On one occasion where he met with relatives of the hunger strikers, he refused to meet the family ofBobby Sands, anMP forFermanagh and South Tyrone andO/C of theProvisional IRA hunger strikers, and the first to die on this strike, along with the sister ofRaymond McCreesh, who had died on 21 May. During the meeting, two ofThomas McElwee's sisters, Mary and Nora, broke down and left. Mary McElwee told the media outside that "he's doing nothing, he's asking for suggestions". FitzGerald then ordered Gardaí to remove the families from the meeting. 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".[22]
The economic crisis was also much worse than FitzGerald had feared. Fine Gael had to scrap its plans for tax cuts in the run-up to the election, and a draconian mid-year budget was introduced almost immediately. The July budget seemed exceptionally austere for a government dependent on Independent TDs support.[citation needed] The second budget introduced by John Bruton led to the government's defeat in the Dáil on the evening of 27 January 1982.
In light of thisloss of supply, FitzGerald went toÁras an Uachtaráin to request a dissolution of the Dáil from thepresident,Patrick Hillery. The president may refuse to grant a dissolution when it was advised by a Taoiseach who has "ceased to retain the support of a majority in Dáil Éireann". When FitzGerald got there, he was informed that senior opposition figures (and some Independent TDs), including the Opposition leader (and former Taoiseach) Charles Haughey,Brian Lenihan andSylvester Barrett, had made a series of telephone calls demanding that Hillery refuse the dissolution. Had Hillery done so, it would have forced FitzGerald's resignation as Taoiseach and enabled the Dáil to nominate someone else for the post—presumably Haughey. Hillery is said to have angrily rejected such pressure, regarding it as gross misconduct. He granted FitzGerald the dissolution.[c]
At theFebruary 1982 general election, Fine Gael lost only two seats but was out of office. However, theNovember 1982 general election (the third election within eighteen months) resulted in FitzGerald being returned as Taoiseach for a second time, heading a Fine Gael–Labour coalition with a working majority.
Deep economic recession dominated FitzGerald's second term as well as his first. Pursuing "fiscal rectitude" to reduce a high national debt required a firmer control of public spending than Labour found easy to accept. The harmonious relationship the Taoiseach developed with hisTánaiste,Dick Spring, successfully avoided a collapse of the coalition for more than four years, despite tensions between other Ministers, and enabled the government to survive. Fine Gael wanted to revive the economy by controlling public spending and imposing cutbacks to reduce the public budget deficit.[citation needed]
The measures proposed by FitzGerald's Minister for Finance,Alan Dukes, were utterly unacceptable to the Labour Party, which was under enormous pressure from its support base to maintain public services. The two parties in government found themselves in a stalemate position. They stopped the financial crisis from worsening but could not take the decisive action that would generate economic growth. With negligible economic growth and large-scale unemployment, the FitzGerald government was deeply unpopular with the public.
When FitzGerald attended aBilderberg meeting in 1985, his rival Haughey suggested it had links withNATO, thus contraveningIreland's official position of neutrality.[24]
As Taoiseach for a second time, FitzGerald advocated a liberalisation of Irish society to create what he called the non-sectarian nation of "Tone andDavis". TheEighth Amendment of the Constitution, which "[acknowledged] the right to life of the unborn", was approved in a referendum against the recommendation of FitzGerald.[25] Aproposal to allow divorce was defeated in a 1986 referendum; however, thelaw on contraception was liberalised under theHealth (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act 1985.[18]
FitzGerald set up theNew Ireland Forum in 1983, which brought together representatives of the constitutional political parties in the Republic and the nationalistSDLP from Northern Ireland. Although the Unionist parties declined his invitation to join, and the Forum's conclusions proposing various forms of association between Northern Ireland and the Republic were rejected outright by British prime ministerMargaret Thatcher, the Forum provided the impetus for the resumption of serious negotiations between the Irish and British governments, which culminated in theAnglo-Irish Agreement of November 1985. This agreement provided for a mechanism by which the British government could consult the Republic of Ireland regarding the governance of Northern Ireland,[5] and was bitterly opposed by Unionists in Northern Ireland, whose MPs all resigned their seats in theBritish Parliament in protest. New elections were required to be held in Northern Ireland, in which the unionists lost the seat ofNewry and Armagh toSeamus Mallon of the SDLP. During this period, on 15 March 1984, he was also invited to address ajoint session of the United States Congress, the fourth Irish leader to do so.[d]
His government had also passed the Extradition Act 1987, which ended the long-standing defence againstextradition of suspects who could plead that an act of violence in Northern Ireland or Britain was a political offence.[26]
While the agreement was repudiated and condemned by Unionists, it was said to become the basis for developing trust and joint action between the governments, which in time would ultimately bring about theDowning Street Declaration of 1993 and the subsequent republican andloyalist cease-fires.[18]
FitzGerald attempted to reshuffle his cabinet in February 1986, but certain ministers resisted – notablyBarry Desmond, who refused to move from his Health and Social Welfare portfolio. The eventual outcome of the cabinet changes further undermined FitzGerald's authority. The newProgressive Democrats party was launched later that year byDesmond O'Malley out of the divisions within Fianna Fáil. It struck an immediate chord with many disenchanted Fine Gael supporters who had tired of the failure to address the economic crisis fully and who yearned for a coherent right-wing policy from FitzGerald. Seeing their party's support base under attack from the right only strengthened the resolve of FitzGerald's Fine Gael colleagues to break with the Labour Party approach, despite their leader's close empathy with Labour.
Stymied by the economic crisis, 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. The proposed amendment was mired in controversy, and the many accompanying legal changes needed were not presented. Haughey skilfully opposed the referendum along with the Roman Catholic Church and landed interests worried about property rights.[citation needed]
In January 1987, the Labour Party members of the government withdrew from the government over disagreements due to budget proposals. Lacking a parliamentary majority, FitzGerald sought a dissolution of the Dáil, which was granted, continuing to lead a minority Fine Gael government until after the election. In the1987 general election, Fine Gael stood on the proposed stringent budgetary cutbacks that Labour had blocked for four years. Fianna Fáil returned to office in March 1987 after Fine Gael was heavily defeated in the election. The Progressive Democrats won 14 seats, mainly fromFine Gael. Although Haughey did not have an overall majority, when it came to theDáil vote on the nomination of Taoiseach, the Independent left-wing TDTony Gregory voted against FitzGerald but abstained on Haughey, seeing Haughey as the "lesser of two evils". This was because of Gregory's opposition to the Anglo-Irish agreement and his strong personal dislike for FitzGerald.[citation needed] Haughey was elected Taoiseach on the casting vote of theCeann Comhairle.
FitzGerald retired as leader of Fine Gael immediately after the Dáil elected Haughey as Taoiseach;[27] the parliamentary partyelected Alan Dukes in his place. His autobiographyAll in a Life appeared in 1991, immediately becoming a best-seller. He retired completely from politics at the1992 general election. His wife, Joan, predeceased him in 1999 after a long illness.[28]
After that, FitzGerald wrote a weekly column every Saturday inThe Irish Times and lectured widely at home and abroad on public affairs.[e] He came out of retirement to campaign for a "yes" vote in thesecond Irish referendum on the EU'sTreaty of Nice, held in 2002. He held the post of Chancellor of theNational University of Ireland from 1997 to 2009. In March 2000, FitzGerald was on the board of directors ofElection.com when it conducted the world's first public election ever held over the Internet,Arizona's Democratic primary; in that primary, voter turnout increased more than 500% over the 1996 primary.[30][failed verification]
FitzGerald took a leading part in the campaign for asecond referendum on the EU'sTreaty of Lisbon in 2009. He argued for Ireland to continue with European integration. FitzGerald had been scathing of the record of the Fianna Fáil–led government since 1997 on the economy and the national finances. In hisIrish Times column, he was a frequent critic of the loss ofcompetitiveness and the inflation caused by the tax cuts and excessive public spending increases of theCeltic Tiger era. In 2009, FitzGerald received a new ministerial car, the first and only one to be purchased by the state since aneconomic recession hit Ireland in 2008.[31] In 2010, FitzGerald appeared on RTÉ's "Top 40 Irishmen" list.
He was vice-president of theRailway Preservation Society of Ireland for his last 20 years.[32]
In early 1999, it emerged that some six years earlier,Allied Irish Banks (AIB) andAnsbacher Banks wrote off debts of almostIR£ 200,000 owed by FitzGerald, following the collapse of the aircraft leasing company,Guinness Peat Aviation (GPA), in which he was a shareholder.[33] The chairman of AIB at the time,Peter Sutherland, was also a former director of GPA and had served asAttorney General under FitzGerald, prior to FitzGerald appointing him as Ireland's member of theEuropean Commission. TheMoriarty Tribunal investigated this matter,[34] and compared the treatment by AIB of FitzGerald with their treatment of Charles Haughey.[f] They found evidence that he had worked to compromise his indebtedness with AIB and no evidence of any wrongdoing.[g]
On 5 May 2011, it was reported that FitzGerald was seriously ill in aDublin hospital.[37] Newly elected Fine Gael TaoiseachEnda Kenny sent his regards and called him an "institution";[38] on 6 May he was put on aventilator.[39] On 19 May,[40] after suffering frompneumonia,[41] he died at theMater Private Hospital in Dublin,[42] at the age of 85.
In a statement, Irish presidentMary McAleese hailed FitzGerald as "a man steeped in the history of the State who constantly strove to make Ireland a better place for all its people".[43] Taoiseach Enda Kenny paid homage to "a truly remarkable man who made a truly remarkable contribution to Ireland".[44]Henry Kissinger, the formerUS secretary of state who served as anopposite number to FitzGerald in the 1970s, recalled "an intelligent and amusing man who was dedicated to his country".[45]
His death occurred on the third day ofQueen Elizabeth II's state visit to the Republic of Ireland, an event designed to mark the completion of theNorthern Ireland peace process that had been "built on the foundations" of FitzGerald'sHillsborough Agreement with Margaret Thatcher in 1985.[46] In a personal message, the Queen offered her sympathies and said she was "saddened" to learn of FitzGerald's death.[47] British prime ministerDavid Cameron, who was also in Ireland, paid tribute to FitzGerald's "huge contribution to the peace process bringing reconciliation for all that had happened in the past".[48][49] On his visit to Dublin, US presidentBarack Obama offered condolences on FitzGerald's death; he spoke of "someone who believed in the power of education; someone who believed in the potential of youth; most of all, someone who believed in the potential of peace and who lived to see that peace realised".[50]
FitzGerald was buried atShanganagh Cemetery.[51]
In February 2012,Young Fine Gael (YFG) announced that its annual summer school would be renamed the Garret FitzGerald YFG Summer School.[citation needed]
FitzGerald led the following governments:
Saint Mary's University[52]
Keele University[53]
Boston College[54]Oxford University[55]
National University of Ireland[56]Trinity College Dublin[57]Ulster University[58]Open University[59]More pleasing to him was Mabel's conversion to Catholicism in 1943.
Joan O'Farrell: born Liverpool 24 March 1923; married 1947 Garret Fitzgerald (two sons, one daughter); died Dublin 12 June 1999.
In 2008 11 of the cars were changed at a cost to the exchequer of €510,000. However, since then and because of the recession, only one car has been bought, for former taoiseach Garret FitzGerald in 2009.
As in Mr. Haughey's case, there was a substantial discounting or forbearance shown in Dr. Fitzgerald's case. However, in contrast with Mr. Haughey's case, Dr. Fitzgerald's case involved the effective exhaustion of his assets in order to achieve a settlement whereas Mr. Haughey's assets were retained virtually intact.
In summary, it would appear that in compromising his indebtedness with the Bank, Dr. Fitzgerald disposed of his only substantial asset, namely, his family home at Palmerston Road, a property which would now be worth a considerable sum of money.
The monarch yesterday joined warm words spoken about the 85-year-old Fine Gael politician after he died at the Mater Hospital in Dublin after suffering from pneumonia.
President McAleese described him as a man steeped in the history of the State who constantly strove to make Ireland a better place for all its people.
Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger described Dr Garret FitzGerald as an intelligent and amusing man who was dedicated to his country.
Let me also express my condolences on the recent passing of former Taoiseach Garrett [sic] Fitzgerald.
The funeral mass takes place at 2.30 pm on Sunday, with burial afterwards at Shanganagh Cemetery.
Media related toGarret FitzGerald at Wikimedia Commons| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister for Foreign Affairs 1973–1977 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of the Opposition 1977–1981 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Taoiseach 1981–1982 | |
| Leader of the Opposition March–December 1982 | ||
| Taoiseach 1982–1987 | ||
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of Fine Gael 1977–1987 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the National University of Ireland 1997–2009 | Succeeded by |
Garret FitzGerald navigational boxes | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||
.jpg)
