From the archives: George Moore's ashes were buried on Mayo island lake
By Tom Gillespie
ON May 26, 1933, the burial of George Moore’s cremated remains took place on Castle Island, Lough Carra.
The Connaught Telegraph described the occasion as a ‘dead and alive’ ceremony that attracted attention of none but those who were said to be close associates of the Mayo novelist, and Pressmen from the different daily papers with a flair for ‘sensationalism’.
The paper report: The only local person present was Mr. O’Reilly, an employee of the estate of the Moores, which is now (1933) in possession of Colonel Maurice Moore, the Senator with Fianna Fáil leanings.
At the same time Mr. O’Reilly could hardly be termed a local man if places of birth are to be the test.
Mr. O’Reilly, however, was merely carrying out duties which came under his contract of employment.
It was he who arranged for the reception of the visitors on the bank of the lake, their dispatch by boat to the island, and the final dispatch of Moore’s urn.
George Russell, Irish writer of note, was not present, though it was said he was a great friend of Moore’s. However, he sent along a composition which was read by Dr. Richard Best of the National Library, Dublin.
The article paid a glowing tribute to Georgeen, his ability in the sphere of art and his abnormal energy.
He was almost credited with the manufacture of these accomplishments himself and the creation of his own mind, outlook, soul and body.
The urn containing his ashes remained in McEllin’s Hotel in Balla overnight on Thursday (May 25) and were conveyed to Lough Carra the next day.
At the lakeside and by the island two of the local Guards kept watch.
The urn was contained in a wooden case and was only opened on the island by Mr. O’Reilly, acting under the directions of Col. Moore.
Those present on the island included Dr. Flannery, Ballinrobe, and Mrs. Flannery, and Mr. W. Morrisson, auctioneer, Westport.
Others present were a Mrs. Crawford, London, said to be a heroine in some of Moore’s novels; Mrs. Kilkelly, Dublin, his sister; Mr. George Medley, solicitor, London; Mrs. M. Molloy, Dublin; Mr. D.P. Joynt, Tuam, and Mrs. E. Voss, Chicago, a niece of the Moores.
When the urn was placed inside the small stone sepulchre especially erected for the purpose, Mr. Best read George Russell’s document, which stated:
“It would be unseemly that the ashes of George Moore should be interred here and the ritual of an orthodoxy spoken over him. But I think he who exercised so fantastic an imagination in his life would have been pleased at the fantasy which led his family and friends to give him an urn burial in this lake island which was familiar to him from childhood.
“Whatever may be the fate of his spirit it cannot be the fate of Laodicean; he was always hot or cold. There could be no fitting burial for one who always acted from his own will and his own centre in cemeteries where the faithful to conventions lie side by side.
“However he warred on the ideals of his nation, he knew it was his Irish ancestry gave him the faculties which made him one of the most talented and unfilial of Ireland’s children.
“His ironic spirit will be placed at this urn burial in this lonely lake island so that he might be to Ireland in death what he had been in life, remote and defiant of its faith and movements.
“He loved the land even if he did not love the nation. Yet his enmities even made his nation to be as admired and loved as the praise of its patriots.
“He had the speech of the artist which men remember while they forget the undiscriminating voices which had nothing but love.
“If his ashes have any sentience they will feel at home here, for the colours of Carra lake remained in his memory when many of his other addictions had passed.
“It is possible the artist’s love of earth, rock, water and sky is an act of worship. It is possible that faithfulness of art is an accepted service. That worship, that service was his.
“If any would condemn for creed of theirs he had assailed let them be certain first that they labour for their ideals as faithfully as he did for his - George Russell.”
Colonel Moore then took up a document and read these words from it:
“I must thank those of our friends who have undertaken this long and tedious journey from Dublin and the still more tiring and tedious journey from London to honour by their presence the last remains of George Moore, buried in the ancestral demesne within sight of the house in which he was born and of the tomb of his ancestors.
“For the method of his funeral I will only say that its goes back to the early years of Ireland’s civilisation, the Bronze Age, a thousand years and more before the Christian era, when Ireland was the richest and most cultured country of western Europe and traded even as far as Palestine before the time of Solomon.”
This concluded the formality.
According to Wikipedia, George Augustus Moore, born on February 24, 1852, was a novelist, short story writer and art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Moore came from a Roman Catholic landed family who lived at Moore Hall on the banks of Lough Carra.
He originally wanted to be a painter, and studied art in Paris during the 1870s. There, he befriended many of the leading French artists and writers of the day.
As a naturalistic writer, he was amongst the first English-language authors to absorb the lessons of the French realists.
He died at his address of 121 Ebury Street in the London district of Belgravia on January 21, 1933, leaving a fortune of £70,000. He was cremated in London at a service attended by Ramsay MacDonald among others.