FG event honours PW Shaw

The man who wrote to King George V apologising for the 1916 Rising and, a few years later, hid Michael Collins in his pantry was remembered at a Fine Gael centenary gathering in the Greville Arms Hotel, Mullingar, last Friday night.

Historian Ruth Illingworth told of the political life and times of Patrick Walter Shaw, the first person elected to the Dáil for Longford Westmeath, while his granddaughter Olga Cox Cameron shared the family’s stories of the man.

The Shaws were and still are prominent in the business, political, legal, cultural and sporting life of north Westmeath, Ms Illingworth said. PW was born in 1874 into a wealthy family that ruled over a business empire in the town. He was educated at Castleknock College and married Minnie Galligan, with whom he had eight children. He was a member of Mullingar Town Commissioners along with his brothers Thomas and Edward, and served on the county council and in Dáil Éireann.

Before 1916, the Shaw brothers formed a political grouping that straddled the Home Rule movement and the radical Larry Ginnell. They supported John Redmond but were somewhat detached from the group led by John P Hayden, founder and editor of the Westmeath Examiner, Ms Illingworth explained.

PW was ever conscious that others were living in abject poverty and advocated better housing and free school meals, and urged the council to give jobs to men with large families, Ms Illingworth said.

He supported John Redmond’s campaign to recruit Irish men to fight in WWI; at least three Shaw employees who enlisted were killed. By 1918/19 PW Shaw supported Sinn Féin. He harboured Michael Collins in his pantry and during the Civil War, he negotiated with the different factions and welcomed the truce.

In 1923 PW Shaw was elected to Dáil Éireann for Cumann na nGaedheal, which he had founded in Westmeath with his son-in-law Joseph Downes, T Lynch, a man called Murray, and Captain Malone of Baronstown. One of his most prominent supporters was Bishop of Meath, Laurence Gaughran, Ms Illingworth said.

PW Shaw loved horse racing, dogs, fishing and shooting. In 1901, he was all-Ireland clay pigeon shooting champion. He was one of the first in Mullingar to have a radio, and in 1905 the first to have a car. In 1910 Shaw’s was the first business to have a telephone.

PW Shaw supported the Irish Sweepstakes, which funded the new hospital in Mullingar in 1936. He also campaigned for better equipment for the fire brigades.

On September 14, 1940, PW Shaw died, just six months after his wife Minnie. She had worked quietly in the background on many committees to help those less fortunate. Her funeral was said to have been the biggest ever seen in Mullingar, Ms Illingworth remarked.

PW Shaw should be remembered for the work he did for the town, county and constituency, locally and in Dáil Éireann. He carried the banner for Cumann na nGaedheal for the first decade as they set about building a new state and bringing an end to seven centuries of British rule, Ms Illingworth concluded.

Olga Cox Cameron said members of the Shaw family, grandchildren and great grandchildren of PW Shaw, were delighted to be at the event. She said it was difficult to talk about a public man in private terms. The only grandchildren who ever met him were Buddy and Frank’s older sister Rosemary and Mary Downes and they remembered him as affectionate. His children rarely spoke of him, not because he was tyrannical or cruel, but because he was almost entirely a public man, she said.

He was a showy man and, for instance, used to skate to the Dáil along the canal in winter. He had 23 race horses in the UK and, “by the way, in terms of wealth, one of our uncles spent many decades covering his debts after he died, so he was wealthy in lifestyle, but not necessarily in the depths of his purse”, Olga said.

He was an example of the complexities of the people who founded the Irish State. The family was quite anglicised. While he was one of the founders of the Irish State, PW was also a kind of honorary Englishman. “We know the events of history, but how families lived them varies with different loyalties, different sacrifices, different outlooks, and PW is a good example of that,” she stated.

His son, Frank, who was dean of the Faculty of Celtic Studies for most of his life, walked around Dublin in his Jesuit outfit with a shotgun under his arm, as he was a keen huntsman, and wrote an article on the 1916 Rising that was so inflammatory and so against Pearse that it wasn’t published until after his death, Olga added.

“We belong to a mixed up, lovely tribe,” Olga concluded with a chuckle. A chapter by Olga and John Cox from Delvin features in Family Histories of the Irish Revolution, published in 2018.

Minister of State Peter Bourke welcomed Cllr Andrew Duncan, a descendant of PW Shaw, along with former TD Paul McGrath and his wife Josephine, former TD and Senator James Bannon, and Cllr Emily Wallace. He acknowledged the work done by transition year student Kelsey McGreal on a booklet on the history of Fine Gael in the constituency for the event, along with Sinéad Casserly and Martina Rattigan of Minister Burke’s office.

He spoke of the changes Ireland has embraced since the days of PW Shaw; for instance, there were no telephones while today politicians have to negotiate an information super highway, he observed.

John Delamere, chairman of the Longford Westmeath Fine Gael Constituency Executive and the National Executive, welcomed Pat Whelan, past chairman of Mullingar Town Council, and John Farrell, past chairman of Longford County Council, to the event. He also welcomed Gerry Heery, who is to contest the local elections this year. He thanked John Casey, Martina Rattigan and Sinéad Casserly and others who worked to make this 100 years of Fine Gael night a success.