Edward Fitzgerald - 1798 Rebel Leader, Wexford, Ireland

Edward Fitzgerald (1770?-1807), was an Irish insurgent leader.

Fitzgerald, born at Newpark, co. Wexford, about 1770, was a country gentleman of considerable means. At the breaking out of the insurrection in 1798 he was confined in Wexford gaol on suspicion, but on being released by the populace, commanded in some of the engagements that took place in different parts of the county during the occupation of the town, exhibiting, it is said, far better generalship than the commander-in-chief, Bagenal Beauchamp Harvey [q. v.] Madden commends his humanity to the prisoners that fell into his hands at Gorey. At the battle of Arklow he commanded the Shemalier gunsmen. He afterwards joined in the expedition against Hacketstown, and surrendered upon terms to General Wilford in the middle of July. With Garrett, Byrne, and others he was detained in custody in Dublin until the ensuing year, when he was permitted to reside in England. He was, however, re-arrested on 25 March 1800, imprisoned for a while, and then allowed to retire to Hamburg, where he died in 1807. In person Fitzgerald is described as a 'handsome, finely formed man ;' he was besides a speaker of great eloquence.
1798 Walk in Wexford which passes by Edward Fitzgerald's birthplace

http://www.1798centre.ie/leaders.htm