John Moore, first president of Connaught
By Tom Gillespie
THE remains of John Moore, the first President of the Republic of Connaught, were reinterred at the Mall in Castlebar on August 13, 1961.
He was given a state military funeral, which was attended by President Éamon de Valera, Taoiseach Seán Lemass, several TDs, the ambassadors of Spain and France, and living descendants of John Moore.
The inscription on John 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’.
After General Joseph Humbert landed at Killala on August 23, 1798, with a force of 1,000 French soldiers, they were joined by John Moore of Moore Hall, along with many of the tenants of his father George Moore’s estate.
They proceeded to Castlebar where they defeated a much larger British force. The majority of the British were so afraid of the French soldiers they fled Castlebar with as much speed as possible, with some not stopping 'til they reached Athlone.
This became known as ‘The Races of Castlebar’.
After the Battle of Castlebar on August 27, 1798, General Humbert, on August 31, issued the following decree, which, inter alia, appointed John Moore as the President of the Government of the Province of Connacht:
Army of Ireland
Liberty, 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 Connaught, decrees as follows:
The Government of the Province of Connaught 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 Connaught, 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 Connaught, 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 general tasks with which Moore was entrusted as President are apparent from the above decree. However, the rebel Republic was a puppet state and was very short-lived. The main problem for Moore was that the Irish Catholic hierarchy was vehemently opposed to French republicanism, whether from the dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution, or the French expulsion of Pope Pius VI earlier in 1798, that resulted in a short-lived ‘Roman Republic’.
In September 1798, just weeks after its proclamation, the Irish Royal Army mobilised westwards and the Republic was lost with defeat at the Battle of Ballinamuck. President Moore was captured in Castlebar by a Lieut.-Col. Crawford.
From a letter dated December 10, 1798, from Lord Cornwallis to the Duke of Portland, it appears that President Moore was: ‘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'.
Moore's trial was delayed for some time as the British authorities took the view that owing to the general strife in Mayo and the presence of rebels, there was a significant chance Moore could be rescued by rebels if they tried to bring him to Dublin to stand trial. Owing to the delay, an attempt was made to force Moore's release under the writ of habeas corpus. However, this was unsuccessful. Moore was subsequently sentenced to transportation.
According to contemporary accounts, the ‘lenity' of Lord Cornwallis to Moore ‘and other rebels gave considerable offence to the violent loyalists’.
While being taken to Duncannon Fort in Wexford, en route to New Geneva, he died in the Royal Oak Coaching Inn, Broad Street, Waterford City.
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 August 12, 1961, his remains were exhumed and conveyed under Army Guard to Castlebar. The following day, after the funeral Mass in Castlebar, Moore's remains were reinterred at the Mall
It was a huge occasion, with such pomp and ceremony as never seen for years.
On that Sunday I was a member of the boys choir from the Church of the Holy Rosary, Castlebar, under Fr. Tom Shannon, who sang hymns at the graveside.
In 1998, to mark 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 Moorehall, the ancestral home of the Moores.
Nothing came of the proposal.