Lord Fitzgerald b1763, swapped nobility for revolution. From England to France and eventually to Erin, the son of the Duke of Leinster fought for change, emancipation and a nationwide and philosophical ‘levelling up’. From 1796, he became a central figure in the United Irish society and its increasingly radical militia, increasingly frustrated at the failure of diplomatic means to achieve reform. With his and the group’s activities growing, he escaped a brutal crackdown by the authorities in March 1798 and was forced on the run. Choosing to remain in Ireland with a £1000 bounty now placed on his head, through double-dealing and subterfuge, he was tracked down to ‘the house of a feather merchant’, Nicholas Murphy in Thomas Street, Dublin where, on 19 May 1798, his attempted arrest ended in a short-lived gun-fight. Fitzgerald was shot through the shoulder but only after he had fatally stabbed one of his would-be detainers, Captain Ryan. Seized under arrest, he was placed in Dublin’s infamous Newgate Gaol where he ended his days. On 4 June 1798, after a botched attempt to break free and with no effort made to remove the bullet from his wound, he died from sepsis in his cell and was immediately declared a hero. For a man born of nobility, others believed it to be an ignominious end to a privileged life.
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