Michael Fitzgerald was a member of the Irish Republican Army who died on Hunger strike at Cork Jail in October 1920.
A native of Ballyoran, Fermoy, County Cork, Fitzgerald was educated at the Christian Brothers School in the town and subsequently found work as a mill worker in the locality. He joined the Irish Volunteers in 1914 and played an important role in building the local organisation which was soon to become the Irish Republican Army (IRA). He soon rose to the rank of Battalion Commandant, 1st Battalion, Cork No.2 Brigade.
On Easter Sunday, April 20 1919 Michael Fitzgerald led a small group of IRA volunteers who captured Araglin Royal Irish Constabulary baracks on the Cork / Tipperary border. He was subsequently arrested and sentenced to three months imprisonment at Cork Jail.
Fitzgerald was released from prison in August 1919 and immediately returned to active IRA duty. He was involved in the holding up of a party of British Army troops at the Wesleyan Church in Fermoy. The troops were disarmed although one of them was killed.
Michael Fitzgerald was again arrested and jailed on 8 September 1920. Once again in Cork Jail he joined a major hunger strike of IRA prisoners at the jail in 1920 and died at the jail on 17 October 1920 after a sixty-seven day hunger strike which also claimed the life of his comrade Joe Murphy and Terence McSwiney.
Michael Fitzgerald is buried at Kilcrumper Cemetery, on the outskirts of Fermoy.
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