Garret FitzGerald: the Jesuit dimension

The death and obsequies of Garret FitzGerald dominated public attention at the weekend, when the country was united in affectionate admiration for our senior statesman. The former Taoiseach had many strong ties to the Jesuits. He was educated in Belvedere and he had his sons educated in Gonzaga, where he worked closely with the school and became a valued friend of many Jesuits. Also he was encouraged in his writing by Fr Ronnie Burke Savage SJ, Editor of Studies, which published his first serious article, one of the Offerings at the funeral Mass. And in the 1980s Dr FitzGerald and his wife, Joan, attended theology courses run by the Jesuits in Edinburgh. This long association was marked by the presence of Jesuit Provincial Tom Layden as one of the three main concelebrants of the funeral Mass.