James Gubbins Fitzgerald

Who was James Gubbins Fitzgerald?

James Gubbins Fitzgerald was a medical practitioner and an Irish nationalist politician and Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. As a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, he represented South Longford from 1888 to 1892. He was a strong supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell.

Fitzgerald trained at the Meath Hospital and Mercer’s Hospital, Dublin. He won a prize certificate for surgery in 1872. Thereafter he moved to England where he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1876 and was an assistant surgeon at the Edmonton Infirmary. He became a Licenciate of the Apothecaries’ Hall, Dublin in 1877 and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons at Edinburgh in 1884. He lived the rest of his life in South London, at Brixton, Balham, Norbury and finally from 1919 at Beddington.

He was elected unopposed to represent South Longford at a by-election on 30 June 1888, filling the vacancy created by the resignation of Laurence Connolly.

When the Irish Parliamentary Party split in December 1890 over Parnell’s leadership, Fitzgerald was one of the inner circle of Parnell’s supporters.