Born in Dublin in 1926, Dr. Fitzgerald has had successive careers as an
Airline Executive, Economic Consultant, University Academic, Journalist
and Politician.
After graduating as a Lawyer he worked for 12 years with the Irish National Airline, Aer Lingus, where he was responsible for economic planning, scheduling, rates and fares.
In 1958, he left to take up a new career as an Economic Consultant and Academic. He lectured in Economics and in the affairs of European Economic Community (EEC) at the Dublin College of the National University of Ireland. As a consultant he participated actively in the development of the process of economic planning in Ireland. In 1959 he was elected as the first Chairman of the Irish Council of the European Movement.
As a journalist, Dr. FitzGerald has, since the 1950's, been a regular contributor to many newspapers and periodicals throughout the English speaking world and, during the 1960's, was the Ireland correspondent for the BBC, the Economist and the Financial Times.
Dr. FitzGerald entered politics in 1965 with his election to the Senate (the Upper Chamber of the Irish Parliament) and his appointment to the Front Bench of the main opposition party - Fine Gael. In 1969 he was elected to the Dail (the lower chamber of the Irish Parliament).
During the 1972 referendum on the question of Ireland joining the EEC, Dr. FitzGerald was the leading spokesman for the very successful campaign in favour of joining the EEC (82% voted yes).
Within weeks of Ireland’s accession to the EEC in 1973, Dr. FitzGerald was appointed Foreign Minister in a new coalition Government. As Foreign Minister he pursued a strong pro-integrationist policy in respect of the EEC.
In 1975, as Foreign Minister he led what was seen at the time as a highly successful first Irish Presidency of the European Council of Ministers - leading the negotiations on the first historic Lome Convention between the E.C. and the Developing States of Africa, the Carribean, Asia and the Pacific.
In 1977, after the defeat of the Coalition Government, he was unanimously elected as Leader of his Party (Fine Gael).
In 1981 He became Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of a Coalition Government. The main task was to tackle the huge fiscal deficit - something which led to the collapse of that Government after 9 months and a return to opposition. However after 3 successive elections within an 18 month period, Dr. FitzGerald secured a four and a half year term of Government as Taoiseach. During this period in office, Dr. FitzGerald’s Government halved the fiscal deficit; eliminated a very large external payments deficit, and reduced inflation from 20% to 3%.
During this, his 2nd period as Taoiseach, Dr. FitzGerald successfully negotiated with British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 in which the Irish Government secured an unprecedented role in relation to the protection of the interests of the Nationalist Community in Northern Ireland. This period also saw Dr FitzGerald successfully chairing the Dublin European Council of December 1984 which cleared the way for eventual Spanish and Portugese accession.
On the defeat of his Government in March 1987, Dr FitzGerald resigned from the leadership of his party and, five years later, stood down from his membership of the Irish Parliament.
Dr. FitzGerald is currently Chancellor of the National University of Ireland; Director of a number of private companies primarily engaged in export market consultancy and in software production; Chairman of the Board of Rila Inc., a George Soros Company utilising the skills of computer programmers from Bulgaria in sectors like E-Commerce.
He lectures widely, has undertaken a large number of consultancies, and writes a weekly column in the Irish Times newspaper. Dr FitzGerald is a long-serving member of the Trilateral Commission - a body established in 1973 by David Rockefeller to intensify contacts between Japan, Europe and the USA.
Dr FitzGerald has written many books on a wide range of subjects including - Irish State Enterprises; Economic Planning; and Northern Ireland. In 1991 he published his autobiography - "All in a Life".
22 February 2002