Thomas Moore (28 May 1779-25 February 1852) was an Irish Whig poet and satirist.
Biography[]
Thomas Moore was born to a Catholic family in Dublin in 1779, and he was among the first Catholics admitted to Trinity College Dublin in 1795. While studying law, Moore opposed union with Great Britain and sympathized with the French Revolution; however, he was only interrogated for his United Irishmen sympathies and never arrested. He later studied in London and, in search of advancement, served as registrar of the Admiralty Prize Court in Bermuda; he was later considered the island's poet laureate, although he disliked his six-month stay and returned to England in 1804. Moore published his acclaimed Irish Melodies in 1808 and became a salon performer and satirist who criticized successive Tory governments. Though he accused the Tories of supporting Catholic emancipation only to further entrench reactionism, he shared their concern about the enfranchisement of commoners in 1832. He later refused to stand as a Repeal Association candidate for Parliament, as he believed that reconciliation between Ireland's Catholic majority and Protestant minority - together with tenant rights and land reform - was necessary before Ireland could nullify its union with Britain. He died in Bromham, Wiltshire in 1852.