Tributes paid following death of founder and CEO of Bárd na nGleann

Tributes have been paid by colleagues and others in the Cork Gaeltacht village of Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh following the sudden death in California of the founder and CEO of Bárd na nGleann, a technical manual company which was a pioneer of remote working in Ireland.

Tom Fitzgerald, a native of Cill Chuaile in the west Kerry Gaeltacht, emigrated to the USA in the late 1960s and enlisted in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War. 

Following his discharge, he worked on the Alaska pipe line for three years, became a teacher and, eventually, he built up a reputation as a business consultant and established Bárd International as a company in Silicon Valley writing technical manuals for major US companies such as Adobe, Intel, National Semi-conductor, Nortel Networks, Tymnet and BT North America.

During this time he studied and garnered degrees from Tacoma Community College in Washington, a BA from the University of San Francisco, an MSC in International Marketing and Management and a Sloan Fellowship from the London Business School.

Tom returned to Ireland in the 1990s and founded Bárd na nGleann in 1999 in the Cork Gaeltacht village with a view to giving something back to the Gaeltacht community and was a pioneer in establishing the company as a supplier of technical manuals for many leading companies in Ireland. 

From the Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh base, Bárd employed people in the Cork Gaeltacht and other Gaeltacht communities around Ireland. At present the company employs up to 80 people in Ireland and further afield.

A native Irish speaker, Tom also established the leading Irish language literature platform, Litriocht.com, which sells books and CDs as Gaeilge all over the world. In the US he set up networks to link Irish speakers in California.

Living between the US and west Cork, Tom was the founding chairman of Gaelscoil Bheanntrai and he and his wife Sally-Anne raised two children, William and Kate. Kate died in 2011. 

Údarás na Gaeltachta Regional Manager for Munster, Dónal Ó Liatháin, described Tom Fitzgerald as a pioneer, very capable and professional, and extended his sympathies to his wife and son.

“He was the type of entrepreneur who had the motto ‘is féidir linn/yes we can’ before Barack Obama ever said it,” said Mr. Ó Liatháin. 

“I remember meeting him after he returned to Ireland, he had left and that always pained him, the main thing he wanted was to give something back to the people of the Gaeltacht, he had done well, he had worked with many of the big companies, he returned and wanted to do something for the people of the Gaeltacht, and for the language – and he certainly did that.” 

Nóirín Uí Thuama, from Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh, worked with Litríocht.com for a number of years and said that Tom was well loved in the locality. 

“He was always generous with his time and in terms of sponsorship for local events and happenings – Bárd na nGleann sponsored all the flowers you see in Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh for the Tidy Towns, for instance.” 

The remains of Tom Fitzgerald are to be cremated in the USA. No other funeral arrangements have been publicised.