MOORE, ARTHUR. - Count and statesman, b. in 1849 at Liverpool, d. in 1904 at Mooresfort, Tipperary (Ireland). Elected deputy in 1874, he supported in Parliament agrarian reform, better treatment of children in factories, university education for Irish Catholics, and Home Rule. In 1877 the Pope conferred upon him the title of count.
He was convinced that the Irish question had to be resolved legally and not by a policy of violence and agitation. He therefore did not wholly approve the programme of the Land League and the National League, and voted in favour of the second reading of Gladstone’s land bill, although Parnell and other friends of his abstained. Convinced of the soundness of his ideas, he did not wish to bind himself too closely to his political friends, lest he run the risk of losing his independence and freedom of judgment. Following the electoral reform of 1885, which deprived Clonmel of its representative in the Commons, M. left the Chamber. He nevertheless continued tirelessly to serve the cause of Catholics and Irishmen through generous donations to schools, churches, and convents; he published articles in periodicals and newspapers in defence of religion, and delivered speeches and lectures. He was deeply religious: the practices of worship were for him an intensely felt inner experience.