MOORE, ARTHUR. - Count and politician, b. in 1849 at Liverpool, d. in 1904 at Moorecroft, 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 should be resolved legally and not through a policy of violence and agitation. He therefore did not fully approve the program of the Land League and the National League and voted in favor of the second reading of Gladstone’s land bill, although Parnell and other friends abstained. Convinced of the soundness of his ideas, he refused to bind himself too closely to his political friends so as not to risk losing his independence and freedom of judgment. Following the electoral reform of 1885, which deprived Clonmel of its parliamentary representative, M. left the House. He nevertheless continued to serve without pause the cause of Catholics and the Irish with generous donations to schools and churches; he published articles in magazines and newspapers in defense of religion and delivered speeches and lectures. He was deeply religious: acts of worship were for him an intensely felt inner experience.