David FitzGerald

“ FitzGibbon was a man of many activities outside his profession. He did much for education in Ireland. He served with Lord Rosse and Lord Randolph Churchill on the commission appointed in 1878 to inquire into the condition and management of the endowed schools of Ireland (Winston S. Churchill, Lord R. Churchill, pp. 78, 79; Endowed Schools (Ireland) , Report of the Royal Commissioners, 1881) . The Report led to the more important commission 'on educational endowments in Ireland,' of which FitzGibbon was chairman from 1885 to 1897. ”

“ Sligo, was eldest of the twelve children of Charles Joseph MacDermot, titular 'Prince of Coolavin,' by his wife Arabella O'Rorke, the last lineal descendant of the Breffny family. The family, which was Roman catholic, lost most of their lands in the civil wars in Ireland in the seventeenth century, and they lived for generations in great retirement at Coolavin, where the head, despite his narrow means, maintained much personal state (cf. Arthur Young's Tour in Ireland, i. 219) . ”

“ During its existence they framed schemes dealing with 1350 primary schools, eighty intermediate, and twenty-two collegiate schools and institutions, and the total annual income administered under these schemes was over 140,000l. Most of FitzGibbon's vacations were devoted to this commission. He was also a commissioner of national education in Ireland from 1884 to 1896, and in that capacity was specially successful in getting the rival denominations to agree. ”