In Memoriam: Bob Moony – “way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine … ”

by Pádraic Gilligan, Chief Marketing Officer, SITE & Co-Founder, SoolNua Consulting

There’s a line in Arthur Miller’s great tragedy Death of a Salesman, where Willy Loman, the play’s main character,  is described as “a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine … ”

Whenever I saw Bob Moony, that line would come to mind.

Bob had the smile, and the shoeshine; he had the easy manner of a true pro, always punctual, always perfectly suited and booted, genuinely sincere and sincerely genuine.

To paraphrase the Blasket Island writers, “Ní bheidh a leithéid ann arís” (His likes will never be seen again).

When I first met Bob in the 1990’s he was Sales Manager for Doyle Hotels, the indigenous chain founded by developer PV Doyle that included the 3 star Montrose, Tara Towers and Green Isle Hotels, the 4 star Burlington Hotel (don’t ever call it the “Burlo” in front of Bob) and the 5 star Berkeley Court and Westbury Hotels.

Bob dealt with US tour operators and travel agents for FIT and tour series business, and with incentive houses and corporates for groups. He was known and loved the length and breadth of the United States and, by the mid-nineties, had already completed over 100 trips to the US, proudly showing his well stamped passport to prove it.

He was a key player in that A-team of peerless pioneers in the eighties and nineties that put Ireland on the map for incentive travel. Without the annual presence of Bob and others in Chicago at the storied Incentive Travel & Meetings Exhibition (IT&ME), and their consistent hard yards criss-crossing the US, Ireland wouldn’t be etched, as it fortunately is, in the hearts and minds of so many US travel agents and incentive houses.

As a sales pro, Bob remained resolutely “old school” when the brave new world of internet, social media and, eventually, AI insinuated itself into the sales process. His Linkedin profile records him as Sales Manager at the Burlington Hotel but there’s no headshot, no personal statement, no vainglorious claims around his brilliance.

Bob simply preferred real time, real places and real people. And that’s precisely why, and how, he did so well. Deals were sealed and re-sealed with eye contact and firm handshakes, not so much with pull or push techniques, CRM systems or relative BOFU status. If there was a problem, Bob got on a plane or lifted the phone and called his client.

For Bob, the sales process was not B2B or B2C, it was H2H – human to human. And that, above all, meant courtesy and respect. Bob showed courtesy and respect by his meticulous time keeping (he was always ridiculously early) and his forensic attention to detail, particularly to attire and personal appearance. Smart casual for Bob was always way more smart than casual, and business attire meant tie pin, cufflinks and a military shoeshine. His moustache was the real deal too, not some lame expression of hipster irony!

I’ve no idea what he thought of that next generation of tour and travel professionals – me included – who eschewed ties, swapped crisp white shirts for soft black t shirts and sometimes wore jeans in settings that were clearly “business”. Bob never said, nor would he ever. He was too much the gent for that.

Bob retired from our industry a number of years ago having successfully survived the seismic career shift that occurred when Doyle Hotels and Jury’s Hotels merged, arch-rivals coming together to create a dominant business events presence in Dublin.

He also survived subsequent iterations and re-iterations, as this super-power fragmented, eventually ending up where he started, working for the Doyle Collection, a portfolio of magnificent 4 and 5 star properties located in Ireland, the UK and the US, all wholly owned by a member of the original Doyle Family. He did a brief encore, too, helping a new hotel, Lough Rynn establish itself.

Bob was 78 when he died, following a short illness, just a week short of his 79th birthday.

So farewell, Bob, and bon voyage as you set off on your final journey. You’ll have no issues gaining entry to your next destination as your passport is filled with stamps that speak volumes about the true gentleman you were—kind, respectful, courteous, and a truly delightful, fun companion to so many of us on our journeys across the Atlantic.

Yes, Bob, that is you – “a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine …”