Factsheet - The Thomas Moore Statue

Factsheet - The Thomas Moore Statue
Artist:
Date:
Dimension:
Materials:
Commission:
Christopher Moore
1857
Entire: 620cm
Figure: 285cm
Plinth: 335cm x 465cm
Figure: Bronze
Plinth: Granite
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.