Political and social life
He was a Conservative in politics, and a close friend of Lord Randolph Churchill; it was in a letter to FitzGibbon in 1886 that Churchill remarked that to effectively oppose the support of Liberal Party Prime Minister Gladstone for Irish Home Rule, "the Orange card would be the one to play". Yet FitzGibbon was noted for his political moderation: he had a wide circle of friends of differing political views, and his daughter Anne married a close relative of Gladstone. His house, Kilrock, on the Hill of Howth, was one of the centres of Dublin social life: here he entertained not only his legal colleagues, but many of the leading Irish and British politicians of the day. His Christmas parties at Kilrock were for many years one of the high points of the Dublin social calendar.
He was a man of great erudition, and had numerous interests outside the law. He was a devoted member of the Church of Ireland, and spoke eloquently in 1904 of his confidence in the future of "the Church which I love". He was a member of the General Synod of the Church: he was called the most influential Protestant laymen of his time, and was rewarded with a statue in St. Patrick's Cathedral. At the same time he was an active Freemason, and contributed much of his time and money to Masonic causes and charities.
He took a deep interest in the future of Irish education, and chaired a committee on educational endowments from 1885 to 1897. He gave evidence to the Royal Commission on the future of Trinity College Dublin, and the University of Dublin in 1906. He strongly defended the university's policy on the admission of Catholics, pointing out that Chief Baron Palles – one of his most distinguished colleagues on the Bench – was a Catholic graduate of the same university, and shared FitzGibbon's deep attachment to it. He generously praised Clongowes Wood College, Palles's old school, as an example of the best of Roman Catholic education.
He was a member of both the Privy Council of Ireland and from 1900 of the British Privy Council.
