Children of John Peter Fitzgerald & Catherine Delandre
They had 4 children.
1. 1916 Ellen Fitzgerald was born to John & Catherine at the Lying in hospital on 17/10/1916 , Family address Mt Sion Avenue . Baptised as Helen, 19/10/1916 Trinity Without. "Nellie was wonderful, wise, clever, talented and interested in everything we did or wanted to do. She married in her 40s to a widower, Bob Curham, around 1959/60, a very fine man with two grown up sons, one of whom would become Mayor of Waterford on several occasions" No children of her own . .Died 15/1/1985 in a tragic domestic gas accident, which not only killed her but also, eventually, her niece, Mary Duggan, daughter of her sister Margaret 1924
Above in the Evening herald, Dublin, 19/12/1986
Another article 22/7/1988, Irish Inderpendent, states that Mary was awarded £558,130 damages.At this stage she was in Ardkeen Hospital, 18 miles from her parents' home, and seemed to recognise her family.
She had been in a coma, or virtual coma, since the accident on 16/1/1985, and would never recover , She would need nursing & medical care for the rest of her life. The articlestates that Mary was suing her nother Margaret of Goulawn, Hugginstown , co Kilkenny - but think a typo somewheer there She was 18 at the time of the accident, a shop assistant in an Interior Decorating business . Now fed by a tube and breathing through a tube . She was in good general health and doctors were not clear how long her life expectancy would be, but the judge would give her 15 years
Her mother visited every day and felt Mary knew she was there, and would get distressed when a family member left. She was certainly able to feel distress, but saw every thing through a heavy fog . The cost of looking after her was £100 per day . The Health board would seek to recover expenses to defray their costs
Above in the Irish Independent 7/11/1988
Mary Duggan died 6/11/1988
She had been a very good camogie player. That’s the female version of hurling. Kilkenny (where she lived) was the top hurling county and so, naturally, camogie was also popular there
2. 1919. John Fitzgerald was born to John, tailor, & Catherine on 24/1/1919 at 27 Mount Sion Avenue, Waterford . Baptised 26/1/1919. He the second child, wedged in between three sisters: Ellen, Catherine and Margaret. He was the last of the 4 to die on 24 July 2012
3. 1921. Catherine Paula Fitzgerald baptised to John & Catherine, 27 Mount Sion Avenue, on 5/6/1921 Trinity Without . Never married. Aunt Kitty died 16/12/2003' She devoted herself to her father because she felt responsible for her mother's 1928 death . Where did Kitty live after her brother, John 1919, sold St Alphonsus Riad around 1979?
1921-1924. The family moved from Mount Sion Avenue to Shortcourse, where their mother, Catty, was running this grocery shop.
Kitty's story
“Kitty’s story” is not a brief one and may be a bit fanciful too. She never married although she had several serious suitors until she was in her 40s. She dedicated her life to the welfare of her father following Catty's death; supposedly, this held her back from the altar. The 'story' is that Catty was lifting a large pot of boiling water off the range, when the 4 or 5-year-old ( actually 7) Kitty, playfully swung out of her long skirts, causing her “heavily pregnant” mother to lose her balance and fall over. She’s said to have been confined to bed for the remainder of her confinement and later died giving birth. Mother and baby were said (by K) to have been buried in the same coffin. So, all of her life (died at 81) the little girl felt responsible for her mother’s death and, in consequence, devoted herself to her father. Nice story but the recorded circumstances of Catty’s death do not lend much support to the complete veracity of Kitty’s story because: i) she died in hospital, ii) she had a miscarriage, not a still-birth, iii) she would not go to hospital to have the baby at full term, iv) cause of death was pneumonia associated with the miscarriage, presumably at least some days later, by which time the baby/foetus would have been buried. Whatever the whole truth, Kitty really believed her own story – she could certainly have married but chose not to.
Chris' view is that she likely did cause her mother to trip: but whether that caused her miscarriage and ensuing death is another matter!
4. 1924. Margaret Mary Fitzgerald--Peggy - baptised 30/11/1924 Trinity Without to John & Catherine, Shortcourse. Sponsors Martin Delandre 1866 brother of Catherine- he was living in Tenby in 1911! & Helen Grant, maybe 1863 mother of John .About 1962/3, Peggy married Mick Duggan, a small farmer from Hugginstown, Co. Kilkenny - . too recent to be on irishgen Their children were: William 1964, Mary, Anne and Paula. Mary died, 4 years after the 1985 tragic domestic gas accident, which also killed her aunt Ellen(Nellie) with whom she was staying: Mary was in a coma during all those 4 years.- see press cutting above Mick had a stroke and gradually died. Peggy died age ~71, so cerca 1995 .Peggy's brother, John 1919, became the family representative in the numerous court cases that followed this tragedy
So, 4 children, born 1916-1924 to John & Catherine , then a miscarriage in 1928, leading to Catherine's death