FitzGerald, an economist and journalist, by contrast looked like an unmade bed, the epitome of the absent-minded professor. He acted (and sounded) like the embodiment of well-meaning, liberal, middle-class Dublin values. However, whereas FitzGerald’s father, Desmond, had been the principal IRA apologist of Michael Collins’ day, the son was an implacable foe of all things Republican. He said repeatedly that one of his principal political motivations was a desire to crush the IRA. Where Northern Ireland was concerned, he reflected the influence of his Presbyterian, Northern Ireland mother in his
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