Robert Howard

Robert J. Howard (born 29 November 1938) is an Irish Grandmaster of taekwondo. He is ranked 9th dan black belt and is the first European to have been promoted to Grandmaster by the International Taekwon-Do Federation. Howard is now retired, but was a roofer by trade and is well known for apt demonstrations of smashing roof tiles. He has appeared on Ireland's most popular television show, RTE's The Late Late Show, on two occasions, most recently following his promotion, where he undertook a demonstration of tile breaking, and originally in 1976 where he famously broke his hand live on the show when he was undertaking a demonstration of block smashing. Early life Howard was born in Mountjoy Square, Dublin, Ireland and he was raised in the Whitehall area of Dublin, before moving to the Santry, Dublin, where he resides now. Establishing Taekwondo in the Republic of Ireland Howard was at the forefront of establishing taekwondo in the Republic of Ireland. Since the early 1970s, he has represented Ireland in taekwondo all over the world and has had a distinguished martial arts career with many international achievements, initially as a competitor where he won two silver medals in the World Championships in Oklahoma, USA, later as an Umpire in competitions, and more recently as VIP at the Taekwon-Do World Championships in Pyongyang, North Korea.