620 George Moore

Constituency : Mayo 1847-57, 1868-70

George  recovered  the  seat  he  had  lost  in  1857, replacing  John  Browne.

George  was  the  grandson  of  a  leader  in  the  1798  rebellion. He  was  a  gambler  in  his  youth  , more  interested  in  billiards  than  education  though  he  went  to  Cambridge. He  was  a  landowner  in  Mayo  and  Roscommon who  was  active  in  famine  relief  and  became  a  champion  of  tenant  rights. In  1851  he  was one of  the  founders  of  the  Catholic  Defence  Association   in  response  to  the  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Act  alongside  William  Keogh  and  John Sadleir  and  he  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Irish  Independent  Party  pursuing  the  "turncoats" Keogh  and  Sadleir  with  a  vengeance  after  they  joined  Aberdeen's  government. George  preferred  to  pursue  an  obstructionist  policy  but  only  around  20  members  supported  him  consistently. He  briefly became  the  leader  but  lost  his  seat  in  1857 on  petition  claiming  priestly  intimidation. He  criticised  those  Irish  nationalists  who  opposed  Italian  unification; he  felt  it  should  be  supported  the  better  to  expose  government  hypocrisy  in  resisting  reform  in  Ireland

George  was  a  keen  huntsman  and  owned  racehorses. He  was  a  friend  of  the  Fenian  leader  O' Donovan  Rossa.

George  was  something  of  a  contrary  character; although  fiercely  critical  of  his  fellow  landlords  he  sat  on  the  Conservative  benches  in  Parliament. He  spoke  in  favour  of  disestablishment. He  opposed  the  Marriage  With  A  Deceased  Wife's  Sister  Bill.

He  died  in  1870  aged  60  and  was  succeeded  by  his  brother-in-law  George  Browne