The former editor of The Tablet, John Wilkins, cut his teeth as a journalist with contributions to The Catholic Herald under Desmond Fisher, who has died in Dublin at the age of 94. Fisher was the Herald’s editor from 1962 to 1966, the years of the Second Vatican Council.For Fisher, the council came as a liberation and he stood four-square with the progressives. He later sent Wilkins a postcard from Rome showing the famous dome of St Peter’s Basilica. On the back he had written: “This is what needs the lid taken off it.” But Fisher’s coverage was too radical for some in the Church, and he resigned. Later, back in Ireland, he held senior posts with newspapers and with the country’s national broadcaster,  RTE. His last work was an examination of tran