Charlesfort Design is about bringing digital communication capabilities to rural communities.  It’s also the next step in my own journey that now returns to the West of Ireland, a journey guided at times by “let’s see what happens" and at others by an ambitious professional passion disguised as “proper” corporate behaviour. 

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“Let’s see what happens” led me to a freelance career in TV production, a wholly unqualified dip into the then newly emerging world of computer technology, footloose third-class travel throughout India & South East Asia followed by a life by the shores of Sydney Harbour building my own multinational internet company.  The subsequent corporate alternative gave me five-star hotels around the world, travel at the front of the plane but also a grey suit and a global army of top-tier executive bullies whom I had to serve 24 x 7.  I have settled, finally, on “let’s see what happens”.

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We live on a farm in Dromore West in a home covered from head to toe in old-growth ivy. Charlesfort House dates back to 1781 according to local books.  Our closest neighbour is one quarter of a mile away down the “Stirrabout Road”, so-called because during its construction the starving builders were paid in porridge.  Mains water was connected here in the early ‘90’s; telephone arrived a few years later.  Yet now the broadband connection is fast and reliable enough to allow my wife to be a journalist whilst I try to bring a little part of my experience in technology to the local community and even wonder whether I can make it as a farmer too.   ​

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​So why here?  The West of Ireland was the last area to experience the boom of the Celtic Tiger but one of the first to feel its collapse.   In 2018 the government and the media are full of talk about the Irish economic recovery but try telling that to the citizens of Ballina in Mayo as they walk past still-empty high street shops or those of Ballisodaire in Sligo as they wander through never-inhabited, newly-constructed ghost villages.    The internet has brought wondrous breakthroughs in terms of social media, e-commerce and mobile communications. Design awards and plaudits are won by the most sophisticated and technically up-to-date offerings.  To many of the people of the West - those of a “certain age” at least - these are still far away.   Charlesfort Design has a mission to bring these breakthroughs a few steps closer to those in the rural West who never dreamed that their lives could be so enhanced by technology by delivering simple, effective, cost-efficient communication solutions that work and in the end pay for themselves.

 

Let’s see what happens!

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Timothy Birdsall

Charlesfort

Dromore West

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1st  January 2018