Members of the Drogheda Quaker Community are organising a memorial Meeting for their friend Gerry Fitzgerald, formerly of Bolton Square in Drogheda, who died in Washington on April 9^th last, aged 89. 

Gerry was a well-known journalist, he started his career as a reporter at the Baltimore Sun where he worked from 1966 to 1971 covering many stories of national and international significance including the riots that took place in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. 

He went on to work at the New York office of Associated Press and spent some time in Northern Ireland in the late 1970s from where he filed articles about the troubles and the impact of segregated education. 

Returning to New York he worked as managing editor of the Religious News Service before moving to Washington in the mid-1980s where he worked on the Foreign Desk of the Washington Post. 

Gerry was the son-in-law of the late Dr. Tom Byrne and his wife, Kay. He is survived by his wife of 41 years, Julianne Byrne, Ph.D, who founded the Boyne Research Institute in Drogheda.

The Memorial Meeting is being organised so that his family and friends in Drogheda can gather to remember him. His wife Julianne Byrne will be flying in from the US for the Meeting which takes place at 3pm on Sunday August 21st in the Parish Hall of St. Peter's Church of Ireland. 

The event will be both in person and online and will last an hour. Quakers meet in silence and, when moved, anyone is welcome to speak to the Meeting.    

The event is free to attend and an Eventbrite page has been set up where people can register so that the organisers can get an idea of the numbers attending in person as light refreshments will be served. Also, the online participants can get the zoom details. 

The Eventbrite link is: 

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/drogheda-friends-quakers-memorial-meeting-for-gerry-fitzgerald-tickets-393988539327?aff=eand