Fact File
Name: Pierce Brosnan
Age: 46
Lives: Malibu Beach and north London
Why in the news: This week he became the first person to be given the freedom of Navan
Most likely to say: Bond? I was the giant prawn
Least likely to say: I'll have the quiche
The bona-fide Navan Man, the one who features on The Last Word programme on Today FM, has been magnanimous in a week when his townsman Pierce Brosnan was awarded the freedom of the Co Meath town.
"Pierce is absolutely urbane, sophistimicated and witty, just like me," Navan Man said.
And like Navan Man, Brosnan, who is currently starring in his third Bond movie, is defiantly proud of his roots. It wasn't always so. "I spent such a long time trying not to be Irish, which is a sad state of affairs," he said during the summer.
This week he reaffirmed his commitment to the place where he spent his first 11 years. "I left a Navan boy and came back a Navan man," he told the ecstatic crowd at the reception.
"I am deeply proud to be standing here with my mother. She was very courageous to leave and find a new life for herself and myself. It took courage to leave in the 1950s. That's what Navan people have, courage," he said.
According to one Navan native they also have ambition. "Navan people want to make money, lots of it," he said.
His first Bond film, Goldeneye in 1994, catapulted him into the multi-million-dollars-a-movie bracket and won critical acclaim that had been slow in coming through a hit-and-miss career. He is said by Bond aficionados to be the best portrayer of Ian Fleming's womanising British spy since Sean Connery.
Despite his stunning good looks he is said to lack vanity and will eagerly recount embarrassing anecdotes such as the time he appeared on The Muppet Show when he had to dress up as a giant prawn.
A former director summed up his appeal: "I think it is very rare that an actor who is so handsome seems so devoid of narcissism . . . He wears it so lightly. What you end up with is a man's man women can like, too."
His penchant for self-deprecation has also seen him concede that many of the films and television series he has appeared in have been turkeys viewed by no one "except perhaps a couple of people in Bolivia". There have been more successes than this appraisal suggests, including Lawnmower Man and Mrs Doubtfire. The turkeys have included Taffin.
The journey from Navan Boy to Navan Man has been turbulent for Brosnan both professionally and personally. He has spoken openly about his childhood in Ireland which was marred by an absent father and a tough schooling in the Christian Brothers system.
His mother left the town for England where she qualified as a nurse. Brosnan stayed behind, living first with his grandparents and then with another relation, Mrs Reilly. Because of the connection, her son, Donal, who now lives in Drogheda, is known locally as 006.
Brosnan left Navan for England at the age of 11 and faced another set of challenges. At his London comprehensive school he was dubbed "the Paddy" and quickly learned to play down his Irishness in order to get by. He remembers this as a difficult time, and before he left school - where he enjoyed drama, music and art - he had a south London accent and the respect of his peers.
It was art that gave him his first job. He was a commercial artist for a period during the 1970s before becoming involved in fringe theatre. He grafted in the British theatre scene for years, including three years at drama college where his nickname was Hollywood, before the move to the US, the spoof detective series Remington Steele and fame. As a struggling actor in London he fell in love with Cassandra Harris, the Australian-born actress. She had two young children and the actress-model was, according to Brosnan, "way out of my league".
STILL, they made the move to the US together and theirs was held up as one of show business's most stable marriages. In 1987 Cassandra was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She died in 1991 and her last words to him were "Always an actor".
Often berating himself for being overly confessional in interviews (perhaps because "once a Catholic always a Catholic") he said that talking about her death has helped him deal with the pain.
"Losing Cassandra affected me profoundly in many ways for ever. I'm Catholic and I have good faith that carried me through my wife's diagnosis and illness, but you do fear death," Brosnan has said.
His only regret in life is that his wife did not live to see him play Bond.
Since 1996 he has lived with an environmental journalist and actress, Keely Shaye-Smith (33), with whom he has a child, Dylan Thomas. A fortnight ago she became his fiancee, he told journalists in Navan.
The couple share homes in Malibu Beach and north London and he is signed up for a fourth Bond movie after the current stuntfest, The World Is Not Enough.
At the MTV awards on Thursday he appeared with his current Bond Girl Denise Rogers and looked every well-toned inch the Hollywood superstar. But no matter how deep the tan, Navan natives will always be there to remind him where he came from. Spot on, Brosnan, no bother.