He was a poet, singer and songwriter born in Dublin, Ireland to a grocery shop owner who studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and went to London to take further education law at the Middle Temple in London.
He began writing songs and poetry and it wouldn’t be long before he made his name known with ensuing publications of his ballads released in 1864 and 1852 called as Moore’s Irish Melodies, which were familiarly known as Moore’s Melodies.
A popular society member in London he was awarded the post of registrar in Bermuda to the Admiralty. Making regular travels he visited Canada and the USA and following this experience he wrote and published his book Epistles, Odes and Other Poems.
He hit upon financial difficulties due to his expensive tastes and one of his employees embezzling from him and after finding he owed #6,000 he left England by force in 1819 and lived in Paris, spending much time with Lord Byron there as his literary executor, until 1822 when his debt was settled.
Outliving all his five children, he finally settled in Bromham, Wiltshire, England, with a state pension, where he would concentrate on writing novels and his biography.
Often referred to as Ireland’s National Bard and given the same standing as Rabbie Burns in Scotland, his works have been set to music by composers that include Hector Berlioz, Charles Ives, Sir John Stevenson, William Bolcom and Robert Schumann. His songs include “The Last Rose of Summer”, “The Meeting of the Waters”, “Falls of the Mohawk River”, “The Minstrel Boy” and “Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms” which found it’s own fame in the 20th Century when Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers characters used it in a famous gag using a xylophone which was rigged to explode.
He died when he was 72 in Wiltshire and is commemorated in Ireland with a statue at Trinity College and a plaque at the house where he was born.
The Last Rose of Summer recordings
The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra
Telarc CD-80571 (CD: A Celtic Spectacular)
Conductor – Erich Kunzel
Arranger – Leroy Anderson
Tenor – John McDermott
Fiddle – Liz Knowles
Silver Arm Celtic Band
Pipes – Kieran O’Hare
The Minstrel Boy recordings
Rochester Pops Orchestra
Pro-Arte CDD-454 (CD: Classical Jukebox: More Favourites of Leroy Anderson)
Conductor – Newton Wayland
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