Editing Garret FitzGerald (section)

== Early life ==
Garret FitzGerald was born in [[Ballsbridge]], Dublin, in 1926, son of [[Desmond FitzGerald (politician)|Desmond FitzGerald]] and [[Mabel McConnell Fitzgerald]].<ref name=dib>{{cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/fitzgerald-garret-10020|title=FitzGerald, Garret|work=[[Dictionary of Irish Biography]]|last=Maume|first=Patrick|access-date=14 January 2023}}</ref> His mother was involved in politics; it was through her that his father also became political. He had three elder brothers, [[Desmond FitzGerald (architect)|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.<ref name="BBC-obit" /> He 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]]. FitzGerald senior had been active in [[Sinn Féin]] during the [[Irish War of Independence]] and had been one of the founders of [[Cumann na nGaedheal]]. The party was formed to support the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] of 1921, which created the [[Irish Free State]].<ref name="Eco obit">{{cite news|newspaper=The Economist |url=http://www.economist.com/node/18740946 |url-access=subscription |title=Garret FitzGerald |date=28 May 2011 |access-date=6 May 2020 |archive-date=28 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180228224837/https://www.economist.com/node/18740946 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Although a senior figure on the pro-treaty side of Ireland's political divide, FitzGerald senior had remained friendly with anti-Treaty [[Irish republicanism|republicans]], such as Belfast man [[Seán MacEntee]], a minister in [[Éamon de Valera]]'s government and father-in-law of [[Conor Cruise O'Brien]]. The families of [[Patrick McGilligan (Fine Gael politician)|Patrick McGilligan]] and [[Ernest Blythe]] were also frequent visitors to the FitzGerald household. FitzGerald's mother, the former Mabel Washington McConnell, was a [[Irish nationalism|nationalist]] and republican of [[Protestantism|Ulster Protestant]] descent. However, later in life she converted to Catholicism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Murphy |first=William |year=2009 |contribution=FitzGerald, (Thomas Joseph) Desmond |contribution-url=https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a3136 |editor1=James McGuire |editor2=James Quinn |title=Dictionary of Irish Biography |title-link=Dictionary of Irish Biography |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |quote=More pleasing to him was Mabel's conversion to Catholicism in 1943. |access-date=9 January 2021 |archive-date=11 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111150124/https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a3136 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref name="FitzGerald2014">{{cite book |last=FitzGerald |first=Garret |title=Just Garret: Tales From the Political Front Line |url={{GBurl|id=dJ8HBAAAQBAJ|pg=PT391}} |url-access=limited |year=2014 |publisher=Liberties Press |isbn=978-1-909718-69-2 |page=391}}</ref>

FitzGerald was educated at the [[Jesuit]] [[Belvedere College]] and [[University College Dublin]] (UCD), 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''. He was deeply interested in the politics of the [[Spanish Civil War]] and [[World 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), a [[Liverpool]]-born fellow student,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-joan-fitzgerald-1100225.html|title=Obituary: Joan Fitzgerald|date=14 June 1999|access-date=21 February 2017|work=The Independent|first=Alan|last=Murdoch|quote=Joan O'Farrell: born Liverpool 24 March 1923; married 1947 Garret Fitzgerald (two sons, one daughter); died Dublin 12 June 1999.|archive-date=21 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221110333/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-joan-fitzgerald-1100225.html|url-status=live}}</ref> whom FitzGerald married in 1947. Their children were [[John D. FitzGerald|John]], Mary, and Mark.<ref name="Tel obit">{{cite news |title=Garret Fitzgerald |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/8523880/Garret-Fitzgerald.html |access-date=6 May 2020 |work=The Telegraph |date=19 May 2011 |archive-date=28 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128055603/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/8523880/Garret-Fitzgerald.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Following his university education, in 1947, he started working with [[Aer 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 magazine ''[[The Economist]]'',<ref name="Eco obit" /> and was encouraged to write on [[National Accounts]] and economics by the features editor{{Who|date=March 2021}} in ''the Irish Times''. He 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.<ref>{{cite news |title=Zest for life |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/zest-for-life-1.1011283 |access-date=6 March 2021 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=4 February 2006 |archive-date=11 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211211222435/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/zest-for-life-1.1011283 |url-status=live }}</ref>

FitzGerald qualified as a barrister, from the [[King's Inns]] of Ireland,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lawlibrary.ie/ViewDoc.asp?fn=/documents/aboutus/history/default.htm |title=The Bar Council of Ireland |work=Law Library |access-date=19 May 2011 |archive-date=21 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721125345/http://www.lawlibrary.ie/ViewDoc.asp?fn=%2Fdocuments%2Faboutus%2Fhistory%2Fdefault.htm |url-status=dead}}</ref> and spoke French fluently.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.scotsman.com/obituaries/Obituary-Garret-FitzGerald-politician-economist.6771159.jp | location=Edinburgh |work=The Scotsman |first=Phil |last=Davison |title=Obituary: Garret FitzGerald, politician, economist and journalist |date=20 May 2011 |access-date=24 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110528051614/http://news.scotsman.com/obituaries/Obituary-Garret-FitzGerald-politician-economist.6771159.jp |archive-date=28 May 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{efn|[[Roy Jenkins]] recalled FitzGerald speaking fluent French at the opening of the [[European Parliament]]: "There, I thought, spoke the Ireland of [[James Joyce|Joyce]] and [[John Millington Synge|Synge]] and the [[Countess Markiewicz]]&nbsp;... It was he who made me feel provincial."<ref>{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=John|author-link=John Campbell (biographer) |title=Roy Jenkins |url={{GBurl|id=WccBAgAAQBAJ}} |url-access=limited |year=2014 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4481-9244-1 |page=522}}</ref>}}