Jim Fitzpatrick was born in Dublin, the grandson of Victorian illuminator Thomas Fitzpatrick. Thomas Fitzpatrick began his career as a lithographic artist with 'Punch and Co'. in Cork city and by coincidence ended up working for 'Punch' magazine in London with his friend and contemporary Richard Doyle, the uncle of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of The Lost World and creator of Sherlock Holmes). Repulsed by the racist anti-Irishism of Punch and British journalism in particular, he returned to Ireland and founded the famous Dublin satirical journal 'The Leprechaun'. His caricatures of John Bull, the English stereotype, as a racist colonial thug earned him the wrath of the Irish and English establishment, particularly after the massacre at Armistar in India but the magazine, of which he was the energetic artist/writer/publisher, flourished until his death in 1912. He also produced drawings and cartoons for 'The New York Gaelic American' published by John Devoy, the great Fenian Leader, and for the 'Freeman's Journal' a distinguished Dublin newspaper of the times. He was also a master illuminator and with his gifted wife, Mary, produced many illuminated and richly decorated scrolls, mostly reflecting the influence of the Celtic Revival.