CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

David Shaw-Smith

Irish filmmaker

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 9, 2024
Entity authorityQ105438522
Source-derived summary

David Shaw-Smith (20 January 1939 – 16 January 2021) was an Irish filmmaker. With his wife Sally, he produced and directed the acclaimed documentary series Hands. He made over 138 television documentaries during his career.

In March 2013, 1,800 of his film cans from his archive were moved from his home and barn and put into the RTÉ Archives.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “David Shaw-Smith” as irish filmmaker. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around David, Shaw-Smith and Irish.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1939, 2021, 2013—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1939-01-20. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with David, Shaw-Smith and Irish providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “David Shaw-Smith”, the useful work is to connect “irish filmmaker” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 9, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q105438522. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939, 2021 and 2013.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “David Shaw-Smith”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow David Shaw-Smith primary sources, David Shaw-Smith archive and David research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “David Shaw-Smith”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from David Shaw-Smith” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.