John Moore (Irish politician)
Citizen John Moore | |
---|---|
President of the Irish Republic | |
In office 1798–1799 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Ashbrook, near Straide, County Mayo, Ireland | 1 January 1763
Died | 6 December 1799 Waterford, Ireland | (aged 36)
Cause of death | "a lingering and obstinate disorder"[1] |
Resting place | Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland |
John Moore (1763 – 6 December 1799) was an Irishman appointed in August 1798 "President of the Government of the Province of Connacht" by the commander of a French invasion force, General Humbert.
Early life
From Ashbrook, near
Appointment as president
At the time of the
Army Of IrelandLiberty, Equality
Head quarters at Castlebar, 14th Fructidor, sixth Year of the French Republic, One and Indivisible.
General Humbert, Commander in Chief of the Army of Ireland, desirous of organising with the least possible delay, an administrative power for the Province of Connacht, decrees as follows:
- The Government of the Province of Connacht shall reside at Castlebar till further orders.
- The Government shall be composed of twelve members, who shall be named by the General-in-chief of the French Army.
- Citizen JOHN MOORE is named President of the Government of the Province of Connacht, he is specially entrusted with the nomination and reunion of the members of the Government.
- The Government shall occupy itself immediately in organising the Military power of the Province of Connacht, and with providing subsistence for the French and Irish Armies.
- There shall be organised eight regiments of infantry, each of twelve hundred men, and four regiments of cavalry, each of six hundred men.
- The Government shall declare rebels and traitors to the country all those who having received clothing and arms, shall not join the army within four and twenty hours.
- Every individual from sixteen years of age to forty, inclusive, is REQUIRED in the name of the Irish Republic, to betake himself instantly to the French Camp, to march in a mass against the common enemy, the Tyrant of ANGLICIZED IRELAND, whose destruction alone can establish the independence and happiness of ANCIENT HIBERNIA.
— General Humbert, Commanding-in-Chief
The above decree refers to an Irish Republic, not a
The general tasks with which Moore was entrusted as President are apparent from the above decree. However, the rebel Republic was a
Nevertheless, among the things which President Moore did have time to do was to issue "paper money to a considerable extent...[i]n the name of the French Government".[3]
Capture and trial
In September 1798, just weeks after its proclamation, the
- "taken a prisoner by His Majesty’s forces at Castlebar where he was found with a commission in his possession from the commander of the French invading army, under which commission he had acted and exercised authority under the enemy, being at war with our Sovereign Lord the King ...[and] he had continued to so act until he was made a prisoner."[3]
Moore's trial was delayed for some time as the British authorities took the view that owing to the general strife in
State funeral
After he died, Moore was buried in the cemetery of Ballygunner Temple in Waterford. The location of his grave was forgotten until it was rediscovered by chance in 1960. On 12 August 1961, his remains were exhumed and conveyed under Army Guard to Castlebar. On 13 August 1961, after a funeral mass in Castlebar, Moore's remains were reinterred at The Mall in Castlebar at a state military funeral attended by President Éamon de Valera, the Taoiseach, Seán Lemass, several TDs, the ambassadors of Spain and France, and some of John Moore's living descendants.[5]
The inscription over Moore's grave reads:
- "Ireland's first president and a descendant of St Thomas More, who gave his life for his country in the rising of 1798 ... By the will of the people exhumed and reinterred here with all honours of church and state."
The claimed ancestral link between John and St Thomas More is unproven, and was presumably included for bizarre emotional and not historical reasons.[6] In 1798 the Irish Catholic hierarchy had seen Rome occupied by Moore's allies and Pope Pius VI expelled, in a manner that St Thomas More would certainly have disapproved of. Quiet opposition by the Church resulted in the general lack of popular support for John Moore. Despite the victories at Castlebar and Collooney, the United Irish numbers in the French army had declined, resulting in the defeat at the Battle of Ballinamuck.
In 1998, in connection with the bicentenary of the 1798 rebellion, at least one member of Mayo County Council proposed that Moore's remains should be exhumed once again and this time reinterred at Moore Hall, the ancestral home of the Moores. Nothing came of the proposal.[7][8]
Notes
- ^a Similarly, Humbert's declaration to the people upon landing in Ireland on 22 August 1798 refers only to an Irish Republic not a Republic of Connacht:- "LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY, UNION, After several unsuccessful attempts, behold at last Frenchmen arrived amongst you... Union, Liberty, the Irish Republic! Such is our shout. Let us march. Our hearts are devoted to you; our glory is in your happiness".
References
- ^ "Moore, John | Dictionary of Irish Biography". www.dib.ie.
- ^ A collection of State Papers, relative to the war against France: now carrying on by Great Britain and the several other Europ. powers ... many of which have never before been publ. in England (VII ed.). Stockdale. 1799. p. 361. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
- ^ a b c "Ross, Charles (Ed), Correspondence of Charles, First Marquis Cornwallis, John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1859". 1859. Archived from the original on 16 April 2018. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
- ISBN 9781297245053. Archivedfrom the original on 3 January 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
- . Retrieved 17 April 2024.
- ^ Wood, Martin (18 November 2008). "The Family and Descendants of Sir Thomas More" (PDF). Thomas More Studies. The Center for Thomas More Studies. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2020. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
- ^ Kelly, Tom (11 March 1998). "Controversial plan to exhume General Moore's remains again". Mayo on the Move. Archived from the original on 13 September 2004. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
- ^ "John Moore, first president of Connaught". Connaught Telegraph. 17 December 2022. Retrieved 17 April 2024.