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Robert Shaw

Robert Shaw in his favourite pub, Paddy Walsh's

Reprinted from Irish Press, August 31st 1978.

Robert Shaw, whose death at the early age of 51 will be sincerely regretted, was one of those strangers who win their place in Irish hearts in a way that is not given to many people.  His secret was that he liked people and in consequence they liked him. 

Many people will remember his description on RTE a  couple of weeks ago of Tourmakeady in Co Mayo as possible the only completely unspoiled place in which he had ever lived.  His home for the last three years had been the Plunkett family home, close by which he suffered the sudden heart attack from which he died.

Shaw was, as was Bing Crosby, who had a much longer connection with this country, a man of simple tastes; indeed one of his staged ambitions was to buy a public house in the Tourmakeady district and serve behind the bar.

Tourmakeady is, of course, an Irish-speaking area and Shaw, as befitted a native of Cornwall, was deeply interested in the Celtic tongues.  He would have preferred to be remembered by his books, but most of his admirers will associate his name with his remarkably successful films, notably as the shark-hunter in "Jaws", though his Henry the Eighth in " A Man For All Seasons" deeply impressed the critics.

There are many people in the Tourmakeady area, of course, who never saw Robert Shaw in any of his famous films but who knew him and cherished his friendship.   To them he was not a star, just a neighbour, a friend, a man who would go behind the counter in his local pub and draw his own pin when business was unusually brisk.

He had a full life, both as a family man and as an artist.  In 1961 he won the Hawthornden Prize with his book "The Sun Doctor"k a success which he valued more highly that the millions of dollars his films brought him.

The world will probably remember his best as the tough guy he so frequently portrayed on the screen.  Bun in Tourmakeady the memories of him will be different.  "I love Ireland more that any other country in the world" he once said.  Could anyone have paid us a higher tribute.