Bradshaw, Robert George (1885–1951), republican, was born 6 June 1885 into a protestant family in Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, eldest son of Robert Emmanuel Bradshaw, bank teller, and Mary Josephine Bradshaw (née Bentham). After spells as a tutor at Norton's College, Maguire's College (1902–5), and the Skerries College (1910–13), and as a bookkeeper at John Barrington & Sons Ltd (1905–9), he moved to Sligo in 1915 or 1916 to work with relatives who owned the post office at Cloughboley, north Sligo. Initially hostile to Sinn Féin, he wrote in the Sligo Champion of 15 April 1916 that the realisation of Ireland's national hopes depended on an allied victory in the world war. However, by 1918 Bradshaw's views had changed and he was to the fore in the anti-conscription and Sinn Féin movements in Sligo. During the war of independence he was a member of the IRA and served as Sligo district intelligence officer. In 1920 he and Seamus MacGowan took over the Sligo Nationalist and adopted a militant republican tone before changing its name to An Connachtach (1 May–25 December 1920). A member of the Dáil Éireann north Sligo district court and the ‘Belfast boycott’ campaign, he was arrested 23 October 1920 and held till 29 November 1920, when he was released without charge.
Active in the anti-treaty movement, he was captured by the Free State army at Kinlough, Co. Leitrim, and was interned from 1922 to 1924. After his release he ran a private school at Carney, Co. Sligo, and in June 1930 was appointed secretary to the Western Iron Co. Ltd, Finisklin, Sligo. Acting town clerk in Sligo (April 1933–November 1934), he applied for the permanent position in 1933. While Sligo corporation were keen advocates of his candidacy, however, the Local Appointments Commission concluded that his qualifications were inferior to three of the other candidates. The subsequent dispute attracted the attention of (among others) Eamon de Valera (qv), Conor Maguire (qv), and Seán T. O'Kelly (qv). Alleging all manner of calumny, including bribery, political discrimination, and sectarianism, the corporation refused to fill the post till forced to do so by the high court. Dissatisfied even after an appeal to the supreme court, the corporation waged a war of attrition against the new town clerk, Sean O'Higgins, who eventually resigned in the spring of 1937 after bouts of hospitalisation. Bradshaw again became acting town clerk (May 1937–January 1938) and was subsequently sanctioned for the permanent appointment (19 January 1938–5 June 1950) by the minister for local government, Seán T. O'Kelly.
A trustee of the Sligo Town and Country Club, he was closely associated with Feis Shligigh, having written a number of plays, the best known of which was ‘Brannigan listens in’. Unmarried, he lived at the Innisfree Hotel, Stephen's St., Sligo. He died 3 December 1951 and is buried in Drumcliffe graveyard. He left estate valued at £357.