Thomas Moore - College Street, Dublin, Ireland
N 53° 20.712 W 006° 15.534
29U E 682465 N 5914175
This bronze statue of Thomas Moore stands on a traffic Island just to the north of Trinity College in Dublin. It was sculpted by Christopher Moore and unveiled in 1857.
Waymark Code: WMR0K6
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Date Posted: 04/24/2016
Views: 7
The Archiseek website tells us about this 150% life-size statue of Thomas Moore:
At the junction of College Street and Westmoreland Street, stranded on a traffic island with a disused public toilet is this statue to the Irish bard Thomas Moore. The sculptor was commissioned by a committee, but the result was poorly received in architectural circles. The Irish Builder described it as “that horrible exportation from London, the Moore Statue”.
Appropriately for a statue beside public washrooms, one of Moore’s most famous tunes is “The Meeting Of The Waters.”
The LUAS Cross City website also tells us:
Artist: Christopher Moore
Date: 1857
Dimension:
Entire: 620cm
Figure: 285cm
Plinth: 335cm x 465cm
Materials:
Figure: Bronze
Plinth: Granite
Commission: Paid for by public subscription
The Thomas Moore Statue was erected in 1857 following a public subscription. The sculptor was Christopher Moore while the granite plinth was constructed by the firm of Elkingtons. Thomas Moore is popularly regarded as the Bard of Ireland. Born on Aungier Street in 1779 he studied first at Trinity College Dublin before reading law at the Middle Temple in London. It was as a poet, balladeer and singer that Moore first found fame. His best known songs and poems are perhaps The Meeting of the Waters, The Minstrel Boy, The Last Rose of Summer and Believe Me, if all Those Endearing Young Charms. He was very well received in high society in London and was well patronised. He was an associate of Richard Brinsley Sheridan
and Lord Byron and infamously destroyed Byron’s own manuscript memoir following his death. In later life Moore turned to writing satirical plays as well as novels and biographies.
He remained in England for most of his working life and died there in 1852.
Moore’s statue consists of a bronze figure set on a rather stern and massive granite plinth. When first unveiled the bronze was derided by many connoisseurs, but over time it has been accepted as a worthy if not exceptional piece of public sculpture.
The Biography website tells us about Thomas Moore:
Journalist, Poet, Songwriter, Singer (1779–1852).
Synopsis
Thomas Moore was born on May 28, 1779, in Dublin, Ireland. Close friends with writer Lord Byron, Moore was entrusted with the famous romantic's memoirs after his death. Moore tried in vain to save them from being destroyed after selling the copyright, with Byron's approval, to publisher John Murray. The memoirs were burned by men representing the interests of Byron's estranged wife and his half sister. As for his own work, Moore wrote 130 original poems set to folk melodies, including "The Minstrel Boy" and "The Last Rose of Summer." His poem "Lalla Rookh" is credited as the most translated poem of its time. Moore died in 1852.