Owner of Atlanta Marketing Firm Recounts Irish Heritage
Dave Fitzgerald, founder of Atlanta-based marketing firm Fitzgerald and Co., spoke at a lunch meeting of the Ireland Chamber of Commerce in the United States, Atlanta Chapter on the resurgence of the Irish economy and his reconnection with his family there.
Mr. Fitzgerald said that the people of Georgia and Ireland share a “rugged and unbending desire to succeed,” factors that have led to the turnaround of the Irish economy since his grandfather left for the U.S. in the 19th century.
Mr. Fitzgerald’s family did not emphasize their Irish roots, and in the pre-Internet era he was forced to research his genealogy the old-fashioned way.
In 1975, Mr. Fitzgerald visited the 300-person village of Castlegregory, County Kerry, where he found his second cousin living on the farm in which his grandfather had been born.
Mr. Fitzgerald said that the Irish-American community has ties to Atlanta dating back to the Civil War, when Catholic priest Thomas O’Reilly insisted that Gen. William Sherman not burn down the city’s five churches during his destructive march through Georgia.
Fr. O’Reilly told Gen. Sherman that the large Irish-American contingent in his army would mutiny if he damaged the Catholic church, and the general left all five churches in Atlanta intact.
Prior to Mr. Fitzgerald’s speech, chamber president Kevin Conboy noted the heavy traffic between Georgia and Ireland this year, including a visit to Atlanta by Irish President Mary McAleese in April and Gov. Sonny Perdue’s trip to Dublin and Belfast in June.
