612 William Shaw

Constituency : Bandon 1868-74  (Independent  Liberal ) 1874-85  ( Home Rule League )

William  took  Bandon  from  the  Tories  on  an  Independent  Liberal  ticket  by  four  votes.

William  was  a  Congregationalist  who  studied  theology  at  Trinity  College  and  Highbury  College  Middlesex. He  was  a  minister  of  an  independent  church  in  Cork  from  1846  to  1850  before  moving  into  the  merchant  business.William  stood  twice  as a  Liberal  in  1865  due  to  a  by-election  but  was  unsuccessful.

William  was  generally  supportive  of  Gladstone  including  the  disestablishment  and  land  acts  but  in  1870  he  joined  the  Home  Government  Association  and  he  presided  over  the  convention  in  1873 which  founded  the  Home  Rule  League. In  1874  he  delivered  a  lecture  on  Henry  Gratton  at  Bandon  Town  Hall.

William  was  elected  unopposed  at  County  Cork  in  1874. He  often  deputised  for  Butt  in  the  Commons  and  succeeded  him  as  party  chairman  after  his  death  in  1879.  Despite  this  he  continued  to  sit  on  the  Liberal  benches. Because  of  his  moderation  he  was  known  as  "Sensible  Shaw".

In  1880 , after  the  general  election,  William   was  ousted  by  Parnell  as  party  chairman  who  wanted  to  distance  it  from  the Liberals. Gladstone  appointed  William  to  the  Bessborough  Commission  to  look  at  Irish  land  tenure.  William  opposed  the  Irish  Land  League, supported  Gladstone's  second  Land  Act    and  formally  quit  the  Home  Rule  party  in  1881. He  concentrated  thereafter  on  his  chairmanship  of  the  Munster  Bank  which  was  causing  concern. He  himself  had  taken  a  huge  unsecured  loan  and  excessively  large  dividends  . He  resigned  as  chairman  in  1884   and  stepped  down  as  an  MP  in  1885.

The Bank  folded  that  same  year   and  William  was  declared  bankrupt  and  fined  £120,000  for  insider  lending. He  moved  to  London  and  worked  as  a  journalist  in  his  latter  years.

He  died  in  1895  aged  72.