Club News - Bobby Best 12 August 2023

We are deeply saddened at the passing of lifelong Hoop and longtime club volunteer photographer, Bobby Best, who passed away this morning after an illness.

He will be sadly missed at Tallaght Stadium and Roadstone, a constant presence, always smiling and friendly, Bobby was known at LOI grounds up and down the country, a stalwart for Shamrock Rovers.

UPDATE: FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS

Bobby will be laid out this Thursday 17th at Jennings Funeral Directors (beside Cadbury Coolock). Visitors are welcome to pay their respects between 1430-1630.

Bobby’s funeral Mass is scheduled for 10am on Friday in St Luke’s Kilmore.

The family have asked for no flowers, any donations will go to the support of a local football club. The family have also asked attendees to wear their club colours.

Below is an obituary written by programme editor and good friend of Bobby, Robert Goggins.

Robert Crawford, better known to all at Shamrock Rovers as Bobby Best, passed away in the early hours of Saturday, 12th August. Bobby had contributed to the club as a volunteer in the role of photographer from the mid-1990s.

His passion for photography began when having left school during the 1960s, he took up work in Dublin’s north inner city as a trainee filmographer. While working there, Bobby built up a friendship with a local chemist who helped him learn the skills of developing photos from film negatives. From there began a lifetime as a professional photographer.

Bobby’s other passion in life was following Shamrock Rovers. He took his first action photos of the team at the 1967 FAI Cup final using a box brownie camera. It was in 1995 that he offered his services to the club as a volunteer photographer. That was a role he was to continue performing until 2021 when he announced he was stepping away.

In a sense, Bobby was a pioneer in that club photographers didn’t exist in the League of Ireland at the time he became involved. Bobby would travel all over the country and to games in Europe, very often travelling with the team. He was always on hand whenever media events or sponsorship launches were taking place.

For many years Bobby’s images were the only photographic source from all of the Hoops’ games. He operated at a time when digital technology did not exist and the purchasing of films and developing of the rolls was quite expensive. Each Monday Bobby would spend hours developing his own film rolls at his studio located in the Northside Shopping Centre.

The club match day programme, Hoops Scene, would regularly carry two pages of Bobby’s action shots in each issue. The feature was titled “The Best of Bobby”. In 2018, at an event held in the 1899 Suite, Bobby, along with fellow snapper George Kelly, was presented with a special merit award in recognition of his lifetime work.

Bobby had been attending games at Tallaght Stadium up to recently. He expressed no regrets at having put his camera away as he was subsequently very much enjoying being an ordinary fan again watching games from his regular seat in the West Stand. Sadly, Bobby succumbed very quickly to cancer following a short battle. Always strong in his views where Rovers were concerned and very passionate about the club, Bobby will be very much missed.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.