Thomas Moore, College Green

Thomas Moore was a nineteenth century Irish poet, bard, biographer and general "literateur." He was also the literary executor of Lord Byron, responsible for burning the poet's memoirs because he deemed them to be too scandalous. Generally Moore is regarded as the Irish equivalent of Robbie Burns.

 

But the people of Dublin never cared for this sculpture of him - even though the artist Christopher Moore (1790-1863) was Irish himself, and won the commission through a public competion.

 

The statue figures in one of the episodes in James Joyce's "Ulysses." In the 'Lestrygonians' section, Leopold Bloom "crossed under Tommy Moore's rougish finger." As he does he considers the fact that they built the statue over Dublin's largest public urinal. "They did right to put him over a urinal: meeting of the waters." ["Meeting of the Waters" was the name of one of Moore's most famous verses.]

 

 

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Uploaded on March 18, 2013
Taken on March 3, 2013