CATHOLIC HERALD:  January 9 2015      Home News  p.8 Revered ex-Catholic Herald editor is mourned

Herald editor who reported on Vatican II dies aged 94

THE FORMER Catholic Herald editor Desmond Fisher has died aged 94.

In a career spanning 70 years, Mr Fisher worked at the Irish Times, RTÉ news, the Economist and the Irish Press in London. His last column for the Irish Times appeared on September 30.

As editor of the Herald from 1962 to 1966 he covered the Second Vatican Council. His reporting of the Council sessions was regarded as so incisive that Cardinal Franz König of Vienna said he learned more from reading Mr Fisher’s reports than from being there.

Arthur Jones, who worked for Mr Fisher at the Herald, wrote on the American National Catholic Reporter that with Mr Fisher’s death “the legion of writers who covered the Second Vatican Council has thinned practically to vanishing point”.

Mr Fisher, who was born in Derry in 1920 and grew up in Dublin, died on December 30, surrounded by his family, leaving behind his wife Peggy, daughter Carolyn, sons Michael, Hugh and John and four grandchildren. His funeral was held in Dublin on January 2. Mr Fisher married Peggy in 1948, and they celebrated their 65th anniversary last year. (2013)