Dr Vincent A. Fitzsimon – Link with Lismore of the Past
Waterford News 13 July 1923
American exchanges chronicle the death of Dr Vincent
A. Fitzsimon, of Lonsdale, Rhode Island, which had been for close on 40 years a
successful medical practitioner in that town. Old-time residents of Lismore
will remember the famous Academy conducted for many years by Prof. Andrew
Fitzsimon, and, after his death, from 1863 to 1869, by his son and daughter,
Vincent and Lizzie, among whose pupils were the present Governor General of the
Irish Free-State, [Tim Healy], Miss Julia Crotty [author], Mr. Maurice Healy,
ex M.P., Mr. Thomas C Walsh [poet], and other notables.
Born in Lismore in 1839, Dr Vincent was assistant to
his father from 1859 to 1863, and then took over the school till 1869 when he
decided to go to America. Having matriculated at Dublin University in 1868, he
left his native town the following year, and within five years graduated M.D.
at Bellevue Medical Hospital, New York. For 10 years he practiced at Harbour
Grace, Newfoundland, and settled in Lonsdale. Although pursuing a strenuous
career he found time to write two learned works, ‘The Christ of Promise’ and
‘The Gods of Old’.
He married Miss Kate O’Grady of Lismore and had five
children. The sons were Tom, Vincent and James, the two former being university
professors, and the third a popular priest, Father James A. Fitzsimon, Rector
of St. Brigid’s Church, Thornton, Rhode Island. Vigorous to the last, Dr
Fitzsimon bore the weight of his 84 years lightly, and he died after a brief
illness at the residence of his son Tom, in Providence…A solemn Requiem mass
for the repose of his soul was celebrated in St Paul’s Church, Providence. Over
20 priests were in the choir, and at the conclusion the remains were borne to
St Joseph’s Cemetery, Ashton, where also lie his mother, his sister, and his
eldest brother, Father James A. Fitzsimon. Dr Fitzsimon was an uncle of
Chevalier Grattan Flood, Mus.D. (Enniscorthy), and of Professor Frank Flood of
Roxburg, Mass.
