Constantine Fitzgibbon - Career

Career

Fitzgibbon served in the British Army, in the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, from 1939 to 1942, before transferring to the United States Army as a staff officer in military intelligence from 1942-46. He worked as a schoolmaster for a short time in Bermuda from 1946–47, at Saltus Grammar School, then as an independent writer. It was here he wrote his first two novels. He lived in Italy and spent many years in England before moving to Ireland in 1965.

Fitzgibbon has written a number of books, including nine novels. One of the recurring subjects in his work was Nazi Germany.

FitzGibbon said he was offered, but refused, a job with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) when it was created following World War II. His play, The Devil at Work was produced by the Abbey Theatre in 1971.

Politically, Fitzgibbon identified himself as a strong anti-Communist. Fitzgibbon's novel When the Kissing Had to Stop(1963) caused some controversy because of its "anti-CND theme"; the book depicted the Soviet domination of Britain after the country removed its nuclear weapons.

FitzGibbon was a member of the Council of the Irish Academy of Letters and an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Guggenheim Fellow. He later became an Irish citizen and lived in County Dublin.