Charlie Bird’s contribution to charity and as an inspirational human being has been rightly lauded this week following his passing after a courageous battle against ill-health. But his impact on business journalism is equally noteworthy and admirable.   Bird’s autobiography has two chapters about his groundbreaking exposure of a tax avoidance scandal in National Irish Bank, then the fourth-largest financial institution in Ireland.  Bird describes the pressure he was under when trying to broadcast a story in 1998 that claimed that NIB was promoting a product that facilitated tax evasion.   “The consequences of publicly revealing this fact would be huge for…