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Robert Shaw honoured in Tourmakeady
Memorial to late ‘Jaws’ actor marks beginning of a week of music,
culture and language
Emer Gallagher
JAWS actor Robert Shaw has been immortalised in his adopted village of
Tourmakeady after a stone memorial was unveiled in his honour last
weekend.
The memorial, overlooking Lough Mask, bears an inscription to the actor
who died almost 30 years ago in the Gaeltacht village. Mr Shaw had lived
in Tourmakeady for seven years and was extremely well-liked within the
close-knit community. His widow, Virginia, two of his sons, Colin and
Tom, and daughter Penny, were special guests on Saturday last when the
memorial was unveiled.
“They were really delighted with it. In a way they were shocked and
surprised that we decided to do it so they were very happy and they
enjoyed the day,” said Connie O’Toole, who helped organise the event.
The Lancashire-born actor died in 1979, at the age of 51, close to the
spot where his memorial now stands after suffering a fatal heart attack
while driving home from a golf outing with friends. Seán Ó Conghaile,
master of ceremonies at Saturday’s unveiling, recalled Shaw as a
gregarious, friendly man who ‘always spoke to the people and was at home
in anybody’s company’.
The famous actor, best known for his role as the boat-owner ‘Quint’ in
Jaws, moved his family to Tourmakeady in the early seventies and
immersed himself in the community where his children attended the local
school. Mr Shaw was remembered as ‘a great man, a man who had great
affection and appreciation for his adopted area’.
Colin Shaw told the hundred-strong gathering that the death of his
father, who also appeared in The Sting and From Russia with Love, had
cast a long shadow.
“Offscreen he remained a family man. He valued the privacy that he found
in Tourmakeady. He had a deep affection for the landscape and the people
of Mayo and would be absolutely delighted that he is being commemorated
locally,” he said.
Mr Shaw’s widow, Virginia, who was living with him in Tourmakeady when
he died, said it was an emotional time. She said Shaw loved Tourmakeady
and declared he had discovered ‘the most wonderful place on earth’.
“He was a wonderful person. He was fun, generous, naughty, drank too
much and loved his children,”she said. “He just wanted to be himself. He
wanted real life. Tourmakeady gave him that. He didn’t like the
razzmatazz of Hollywood.”
The memorial to the late actor marked the beginning of Féile na Locha
which runs until this Friday, August 15. The week-long festival
incorporates Ceol na Locha which is a music, culture and language school
sponsored mainly by Údarás na Gaeltachta and An Comhairle Ealaíon, and
is held at Coláiste Muire, Tourmakeady. Now in its eighth year, the
school provides training at beginner and intermediate level in button
accordion, tin whistle, fiddle, banjo and mandolin, flute, bodhrán,
concertina, guitar, ‘sean nós’ dancing, art, conversational Irish and ‘caoladóireacht’,
basket weaving with Joe Hogan. All teaching is through the medium of
Irish.
Connie O’Toole, one of the main organisers of the festival, said the
numbers at the school seemed to be on a par with last year, when 200
students were in attendance. |