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The Lord Edward FitzGerald (15 October,1763 - 4 June,1798) was an Irish aristocrat and revolutionary. He was the fifth son of the 1st Duke of Leinster and the Duchess of Leinster (née Lady Emily Lennox).
He joined the British army in 1779, and fought on the British side in the American Revolutionary War. He was seriously wounded at the Battle of Eutaw Springs in 1781, and returned to Ireland in 1783.
On his return, he was elected to the Irish Parliament as Member for Kildare. At first he displayed no radical inclinations, but a visit to revolutionary Paris in 1792 changed him into a committed republican. He even renounced his title, an act for which he was dismissed from the army.
As a member of the United Irishmen, he helped organize the Irish Rebellion of 1798 against British rule in Ireland. It was planned to hold an uprising in Dublin to coincide with other insurrections around the country. The United Irishmen had been infiltrated by informants however, and before the rebellion could take place, FitzGerald was arrested in a house on Thomas Street, Dublin, on 19 May 1798. He was injured during the arrest and died of his wounds in Newgate Prison on 4 June 1798.
A bill of attainder (later repealed in 1819) was used to confiscate his property after his death.
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