[5] FitzGerald met Michael Colgan, later a prominent director, soon after entering Trinity College in 1968, where she read English, philosophy and history.
[5] Starting in the 1970s, FitzGerald played leading roles in productions, by both Irish and non-Irish European writers, at the Gate Theatre.
She also worked for the Abbey Theatre, in plays such as Six Characters in Search of an Author, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hedda Gabler.
at the Gate, she appeared as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, as Mrs. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice (she reprised the role in the Spoleto Festival in Charleston), in Jane Eyre (directed by Alan Stanford), in The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (directed by Dominic Cooke), and in Martin Crimp's adaptation of The Misanthrope, as well as in Pygmalion and in The Constant Wife.
Her television work included numerous appearances in Fair City, Rebel Heart, Bachelor's Walk, Proof and The Big Bow Wow.