From Ireland With Love: JAWS star Robert Shaw's devotion to the emerald isle

Quint: "You wanna feel somethin' permanent? You just put your hand underneath my cap... and you just feel that little lump. Knock an ole un, St. Paddy's day, Boston." – Jaws

Robert Shaw, the actor perhaps best known as Quint in Jaws, may have spent the last few years of his life filming in Martha's Vineyard or in Bermuda in The Deep, but the place he called home in his last few years was Ireland.

He was once quoted as saying: "I love Ireland more than any other country in the world." And that love showed.

It was a place he kept returning to and lived in for the last seven years of his life, and that home - that escape from Hollywood - was in Tourmakeady.

Robert Shaw serving in the local pub

Tourmakeady is in County Mayo, Ireland, and is situated on the shores of Lough Mask. No wonder Shaw and his family fell in love with the place, and it is perhaps no surprise that the local people were soon to fall in love with Robert.

He played golf in West Port (a game he introduced Sean Connery to), fished and swam in Lough Mask; perhaps he was only in Ireland if he looked at it from the water?

Robert (of course) drank and served pints in the local pub, and even raised crops and cattle. A far cry from the difficult tough guy antics from the making of Jaws.

Clearly, it was a place he was at peace in, sadly that peace would be forever lasting as Shaw would suffer a fatal heart attack on a quiet road near the place he called home on August 28th, 1978. He was just 51 years old.

Not long after Shaw's untimely death, The Irish Press wrote: 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.

And 30 years after his passing, they still liked him and honoured the man who played the guy who crushed the can.

In 2008 Robert Shaw was remembered, or should that be immortalised, in his adoptive village of Tourmakeady.

A giant stone memorial was unveiled in his honour, which drew a crowd of over one hundred people upon its official unveiling. One of those was his son Colin Shaw, he spoke a few words about his dad and the lasting impact the village had on the much-missed and clearly loved actor.

He said: “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. "

And no doubt people in Tourmakeady still drink to his legs to this day.

Words by Dean Newman.

If you would like to write for The Daily Jaws, please visit our ‘work with us’ page.

For all the latest Jaws, shark and shark movie news, follow The Daily Jaws on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.