Gerald Fitzgerald

 In the early years of the Alpine Club (founded in 1857) its membership consisted, by and large, of upper class professionals.  The law, religion, medicine and business provided the majority of members.      Gerald Fitzgerald was one such Irish member of the AC who reached the apogee of the legal profession.

John David, Gerald's father was also a prominent member of the legal profession in Ireland - a catholic, he was liberal in politics and became independent liberal MP for Ennis, Co. Clare (1852–60).  He presided over a number of important cases including the trial of the Fenian leaders (1865) and of Charles Stewart Parnell  and thirteen others for conspiracy to encourage tenant farmers to avoid paying rent. (see DIB for more details).

Aig du Telefre
(Summit Post)

Gerald was the third son of Rose Donohoe, a Dublin distillers's daughter and the father's first wife. There were ten siblings with the second wife.  Little detail is available on his early life and education but he graduated (BA) from Trinity in 1869, was called to the bar in 1871 and was county court judge for Sligo, Roscommon, Longford, Meath, Westmeath and King's Co (Offaly).

He joined the Alpine Club in 1876 and is recorded climbing the Matterhorn in 1877 with his last recorded climb in 1911.  Some of his early climbs were with F.J. Cullinan - col de Miage, Aiguille du Midi and 1st ascent of Aig du Telefre.

From 1885 he climbed frequently with Sir William Edward Davidson, another, British, 'legal eagle', with whom he made a number of ground breaking climbs.

Alpine Club

In 1906 (Jan 26th) he attended the Alpine Club's dinner

that was held by the University Club, St Stephen's Green, in Dublin, inviting its fellow 'Alpinists' to welcome the Right Hon. James Bryce (ex President of the AC) to Ireland.

It might be noted the number of Trinity graduates who undertook mountaineering while they were students or soon after graduating.  Their financial situation is likely to have been a factor but maybe, also, some aspect of their courses or the people with whom they came in contact.

Gerald died in 1913 after a distinguished legal career and a substantial range of mountaineering achievements.

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The Cullinans

 Maxwell Cormac and Frederick Fitzjames Cullinan were born in Ennis, Co Clare.  The Alpine Club states that they were brothers - sons of Dr. Patrick Maxwell Cullinan, of Harmony House, Ennis.  By another source they may have been cousins. [At the time of Griffith’s Valuation Dr P.M. Cullinan held land in the parish of Kilchreest, barony of Clonderalaw, while Michael Cullinan held six townlands in the parish of Feakle, barony of Tulla Upper. He is recorded as owning 966 acres in the 1870s. His son Frederick FitzJames Cullinan was knighted in 1897.  Landed Estates. UCG].

Maxwell, the elder, (born 1843) had a stellar academic career - Trinity College, Dublin; Christ's College, Cambridge - Fellow, Lecturer, Junior Dean and Classical Lecturer.  Called to the Bar 1869, Assistant Professor of Latin at University College London, contributed to a number of volumes on historical and classical subjects.

His Alpine career was relatively short ( AC member 1875 - 80) during which he made some impressive ascents: Adler Pass and Strahlhorn, Schwartzberg Weisstor, Rothorn, Matterhorn were his qualifying ascents.  He lived abroad after 1878 and died in Rome in 1884.

Frederick. born in 1845, was educated at Ennis College and Dublin University but became a Civil Servant in Dublin Castle at age 19.  He moved to the higher echelons of the service in London and later again in Dublin where he also became a governor of the National Gallery.  His time in London allowed him to become very active in the Alpine Club (1878-83) and he visited the Alps a number of times, making some significant ascents, often with Gerald Fitzgerald.  His last recorded climbs in the Alps were in 1885.

Alpine Club

Back in Dublin he continued his mountain activities. It is likely that he visited Wales where he planned to build a house among the mountains he loved.

Created CB in 1894, knighted in 1897 and KCB in 1913.

He accompanied Henry Hart on the 'Hart Walk' to win the wager with Richard Barrington (1886).  He remained a member of the Alpine Club and attended its dinner for members resident in Ireland in 1906 that took place at the University Club in honour of its ex-president James Bryce.

He died in 1913 and his obituary was written by his climbing partner Gerald Fitzgerald, who said: He was naturally of a very retiring disposition, but for those whom he knew intimately he had many and great attractions : he was a good climber, fast, light and safe, and always a most eventempered, unselfish, and agreeable companion. (Alpine Journal 1914 pp 194)

One might ask what was the stimulus that sparked their first interest in climbing mountains.

See Frank Nugent's In search of Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers for further details of both.

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