O'Connell was elected lord mayor of Dublin in 1841 and was the first
Catholic to hold that office. At the height of his fame and power he
might have been a lord protector or the king of Ireland, but he
advocated peaceful revolutions, and, like Grattan, lost his influence
because he would not consent to the policy and the methods of the
radical and revolutionary element. In 1847 he went to address a meeting
of his sympathizers at Clontarf, a suburb of Dublin, where Brian Boru
won his great victory over the Danes in the last battle between
Christianity and heathenism upon the soil of Ireland. The meeting had
been forbidden by the authorities, and O'Connell was arrested,
convicted, and sentenced to prison for two months. This broke him down.
When he was released he left Dublin, started for Rome, and died at Genoa
on his way. He is buried in Prospect Cemetery under a lofty tower. His
will may be seen in the public records office in the Four Courts. He
married his cousin, Mary O'Connell, and had four sons, all of whom were
men of character and ability and have served in the British parliament.
The anniversary of the birth of Thomas Moore is celebrated in Dublin
every summer, and a programme of his "Irish Melodies" is sung by local
musicians--sweet old-fashioned ballads like "The Harp That Once through
Tara's Halls," "Believe Me, if All Those Endearing Young Charms," and
others like them. The proceeds of the concert are devoted to a fund
which is to be raised to erect a monument in memory of this most popular
of Irish poets, whose songs are heard in every cottage in Ireland. His
most pretentious poem, a Persian epic called "Lalla Rookh," brought
$15,000,--the highest price ever paid for a poem. Scott's "Lady of the
Lake" and some of Tennyson's and perhaps Kipling's poems and other
poets', have received larger sums in royalties, but no other man was
paid so much for his verses in advance of their publication.
Moore was born in a little house on Aungier Street, Dublin, which is
unfortunately now a filthy saloon. He was educated in a little grammar
school in Johnston's Court, off Grafton Street, near the Shelbourne
Hotel, where Richard Brinsley Sheridan was also a pupil. Petty, the
first great Irish scientist, who was also a physician and surveyor, was
educated there. His book of surveys made for Oliver Cromwell is still
used by the authorities.
Tom Moore was a chum of Robert Emmet at Trinity College. After
graduation he entered journalism and was connected with the _London
Times_ and the _London Chronicle_. He went to Bermuda as British consul
in 1803, and visited the United States before he returned. He was
lionized everywhere because his plaintive Irish ballads, which he set to
the music of the oldest peasant airs, were in the portfolio of every
musician in the civilized world, and his social attractions made him a
welcome guest. When he returned to England he was given a pension of
$1,000 a year until his death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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