Born in Grosvenor Street, London, he was the son of James Bernard, 2nd Earl of Bandon, and Mary Susan Albinia, eldest daughter of Charles Brodrick, Archbishop of Cashel.
[1] Bernard entered the British House of Commons in January 1831, sitting for Bandon, the same constituency his father had represented before, until July.
Two years later, Bernard was elected an Irish representative peer.
In 1874, he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Cork, post he held until his death in 1877.
He married Catherine Mary, eldest daughter of Thomas Whitmore, in 1832.