Thomas Moore - College Street, Dublin, Ireland - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

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.