When Irish Eyes Are Crying

James Rada, Jr. In early March of this year, Mike Fitzgerald’s children performed a sad duty in honor of their father: they made his casket from standing dead trees that Mike had harvested years earlier. Donald “Mike” Fitzgerald passed away on February 28, 2016, in the log home that he built himself. He was eighty-five years old. The Shamrock Restaurant, which Mike opened in 1963, closed for a few days when it was learned that Mike had died. It reopened a week later, and now stands as a legacy for Mike’s hard work and love of family. About Shamrock Restaurant in a 2014 interview, Mike Fitzgerald said, “There were days and nights in a row that I wouldn’t go home. I would be working here doing whatever needed to be done and then I would sleep here.” The Shamrock was created out of an old dance hall. The walls were stripped and redone, turning the dance hall side of the building into the dining room. Only two rows of tables had tablecloths, originally, and a smaller dance floor was left in place for weekend dances. On the bar side, Mike raised the price of beers to encourage the troublemakers, who used to come to the dance hall for cheap beer, to go drink elsewhere. The Shamrock was a family business. Mike, his wife Doris Jane, his mother, and his nine children (as they grew old enough), all worked in the restaurant. Mike had been a machinist with Moore Business Systems, but he had advanced as far as he could without moving out of state. He had grown up in a restaurant family, though. His parents had owned Fitzgerald’s in Emmitsburg until his father died in 1940. Mike and Doris Jane had decided that they could open a new restaurant and make it successful. The Shamrock was the first restaurant in Frederick County to get a liquor license in 1965. The restaurant also won a national award years ago for having the best St. Patrick’s Day party in the nation. Mike’s living legacy, however, is his family. He is survived by his wife of sixty-eight years, Doris Jane (Wastler), and nine children: Donna (and TJ) Demmon of Thurmont; Dennis (and Dianne) Fitzgerald of Huntsville, AL; Dawn (and Donald) Knox of Taneytown; Diane (and David) Stottlemyer of Thurmont; Debra Oster of Thurmont; Daniel (and Heather) Fitzgerald of Emmitsburg; David (and Bonny) Fitzgerald of Emmitsburg; Darrell Fitzgerald of Frederick; and Dean (and Cecilia) Fitzgerald of Frederick. He also has seventeen grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren who will all remember him. The Town of Thurmont owes him a debt for helping establish the Thurmont Community Park and donating it to the town while he was president of the Thurmont Jaycees. He also helped in the creation of Catoctin Colorfest, which allows many non-profit organizations in town to raise a lot of money each year. He was the charter president of the Thurmont Colt’s Corral Chapter 12. Fitzgerald and his friend, Vernon Myers, also launched the Catoctin Youth Association. He was interred in St. Anthony’s Catholic Church Cemetery.