Boston Forms a Thomas Moore Club in 1852 to Honor Ireland's Hallowed Bard

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Thomas Moore by Martin Archer Shee ca. 1817, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

Born on May 28, 1779 in Dublin, Ireland, poet and lyricist Thomas Moore was so beloved in Boston  that a group of his followers formed a Thomas Moore Club in his honor on May 3, 1852, to celebrate the life and musical genius of Ireland's most famous man.  Moore had died the previous February.

The first annual celebration of the Thomas Moore Club occurred at the Merchant's Exchange Hotel on State Street in Boston on May 27, 1852. The original officers included Thomas Darcy McGee, President; P.H. Powers, Vice-President; John W. Atkinson, Secretary; and Henry Dooley, Treasurer.

Boston had known about Moore's work from the beginning of the writer's illustrious career. His ten-volume collection of Moore's Melodies, published between 1808 and 1834, helped revitalize interest in Irish music that was in danger of being marginalized and forgotten.  

The Melodies quickly found their way into the Boston's musical community; with several of Moore's songs published here as early as 1811. His songs, particularly Last Rose of Summer, were performed as part of Boston's musical repertoire by famous visiting performers like singer Jenny Lind and violinist Ole Bull.  

In 1869 and 1872, Patrick S. Gilmore featured Moore's songs at the National and International Peace Jubilees, alongside composers like Handel and Mozart. 





In 1879, on the 100th anniversary of Moore's birth, poet John Boyle O'Reilly presided over a banquet at the Parker House honoring his fellow-countryman. O'Reilly called Moore "an original poet of splendid imagination.....he found scattered over Ireland, mainly hidden in the cabins of the poor, pieces of antique gold, inestimable jewels that were purely Irish....These jewels were the old Irish airs - those exquisite fabrics which Moore raised into matchless beauty in his delicious melodies."

Professor James Flannery of Emory University, who published a book and CD of Moore's songs called, Dear Harp of My Country, said, "The real importance of Moore is that he envisioned a better future for Ireland, even while facing the bitter realities of the present."

For more about Boston's Irish history, read Irish Boston: A Lively Look at Boston's Colorful Irish Past, published by Rowman and Littlefield.

For more about Boston's Irish heritage, visit IrishHeritageTrail.com.
Research + Text, Michael Quinlin

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