Robert Howard (martial artist)

Robert J. Howard
R. J. Howard, September 2011
Born	(1938-11-29) 29 November 1938 (age 78) Dublin, Ireland
Residence	Dublin, Ireland
Style	Taekwondo
Teacher(s)	Rhee Ki Ha
Rank	9th dan taekwondo (ITF)

Robert J. Howard (born 29 November 1938) is an Irish master 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.

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.

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.

When Howard first became involved in martial arts, in the early 1960s, taekwondo was unheard of in Ireland. He therefore started his training in karate in 1966 in Gardiner Place, Dublin. After several years, a Korean instructor (Yung Wu Kwon, 3rd dan) arrived at the club and began teaching them after he had moved to Ireland to look for work. Kwon was Howard's first introduction to the Korean martial art of taekwondo. Howard and his early classmates (Liam Dandy, Frank Matthews, and Paul Kavanagh) had never seen techniques like these before and were extremely impressed. Later, another Korean instructor (Chang Ho Cho, 5th dan) started to teach and train in the hall. Cho graded Howard, Dandy and Matthews to red belt, but shortly afterwards he had to leave for the USA in search of work.