F. F. Moore (1855-1931)

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Criticism
Patrick Maume, ‘Ulster Men of Letters: The Unionism of Frank Frankfort Moore, Shayn Bullock, and St John Ervine’, in Richard English and Graham Walker, ed., Unionism in Modern Ireland: New Perspectives on Politics and Culture (Basingstoke: Macmillan 1996), pp.63-80, espec. pp.64-66.

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Commentary
Peter Kavanagh, The Irish Theatre (Tralee: The Kerryman 1946), Francis Frankfort Moore b. 1854; The Queen’s Room, one act verse (1891); The Mayflower, four acts verse, 1892, unpublished; Oliver Goldsmith, one act (Th. Royal, Limerick; Gaiety Th., Dublin 8 July 1892).

Jonathan Bardon, A History of Ulster (Belfast: Blackstaff 1992), Frankfort Moore remembered ‘a warm interchange of opinion on a basis of basalt’ and other details of Belfast rioting, Aug 1857. Acc. him, the riots of 1864 were ‘due to the importation the previous year of some hundreds - perhaps thousands - of navvies to dig a new dock … The balance of the fighting power among the belligerent classes was thereby disturbed.’ (F. Frankfort Moore, the Truth about Ulster, London 1914). [349] And note, Moore one of the journalists who got the news by electric telegraph that the ‘unspeakable nationalists’ were beaten in the House by the defection of some liberals [380] NOTE that Moore’s ‘warm exchange on the basis of basalt is also quoted - priorly - in A. T. Q. Stewart, The Narrow Ground (1977), as copied in Patricia Craig’s anthology, The Rattle of the North (1992); Moore goes on to note the way in which ‘pavers’ were laid up in stores to throw at the ill-fated Tommies sent to quell the riots [p.56].

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Quotations
‘It is better to be separated from the rest of Ireland than from Great Britain. That great Irishman, Oliver Goldsmith, wrote the allegory of the mad dog, and it may be applied to the situation. ... Sir James Craig will, I am sure, prove the Pasteur of the Province.’ (“In Belfast” [series of articles], Pt. 22, 4 Feb. 1924; cited in Maume, 1996, p.66.

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References
Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature (Washington: Catholic Univ. of America 1904), gives extract from The Jessamy Bride.

Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction [Pt. I] (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), b. Limerick 1855, brought up in Belfast; staff of Belfast Newsletter, see Journalist’s Notebook (1894); first novel, I Forbid the Banns; IF lists, Daireen [2 vols.] (Smith Elder, 1893; Collins 1910; Hutchinson n.d.) [run-down Anglo-Irish gentry; neighbouring Standish Macnamara in love with Daireen Gerald, plot partly set in S. Africa]; The Jessamy Bride (Hutchinson/NY: Fenno 1897) [on Goldsmith’s last years]; Castle Omeragh (London: Constable; NY: Appleton 1903) [west of Ireland, time of Cromwell]; The Original Woman (Hutchinson 1904), 343pp. [modern woman reverts to original type in life-decision; Galway, later scenes in Martinique, with voodoo]; Captain Latymer (Cassell 1908) [sequel to Castle Omeragh, in which Fawcett is condemned by Cromwell to West Indies, escapes with dg. of Hugh O’Neill, nephew of Owen Roe]; The Ulsterman, a story of to-Day (Hutchinson 1914), 323pp. [son of bigotted Ulster mill owner marries Catholic girl]; The Lady of the Reef (Hutchinson 1915), 348pp. [English artist in Paris inherits property in Co. Down, and finds Ulster v. puzzling]; A Friend Indeed (Hutchinson 1916), 336pp. [two in love with one girl, Harold Escott secure love of girl for other, Tom Melling, by securing him from consequence a theft; girl finally united to truer man].

Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period, Vol. 2 (Gerrards Cross 1980), p.340, A Nest of Linnets, by F. F. Moore, is an account of R. B. Sheridan’s elopement with Elizabeth Linley.

John Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (Longmans 1988; rep. 1989), notes that his first work was a volume of verse published in 1872; spent 16 yrs on Belfast Newsletter; travelled widely as journalist, worked on London newspapers 1876-92; successful plays; twice married; many novels. His early novels deal with sea and fragrant young maids. Major success later with I Forbid the Banns (1893) and The Jessamy Bride (1897), the latter being an 18th c. historical romance with Johnson, Goldsmith, Burke, Boswell, Reynolds, and Garrick; earlier novels incl. Sojourners Together (1875); The Mate of the Jessica (1879), set in the South Pacific; The Mutiny on the Albatross (SPCK 1885); The Great Orion (1886); Under Hatches (1888); From the Bush to the Breakers (1893), Australian [?escape] tale; One Fair Daughter (1894); Nell Gwyn [sic] (1900); According to Plato (1901); also some interesting Irish novels late in life, incl. The Ulsterman (1914). BL 64.

Library Catalogues
Belfast Central Public Library holds The Artful Miss Dill (1906); Awakening of Helen (1929); Castle Omeragh (1903); Daireen (n.d.); A Damsel or Two (1902); Discover and In the Queen’s Room (1910); Fanny’s First Novel (1913); The Fatal Gift (1898); The Impudent Comedian (1897); A Journalist’s Notebook (1894); Kathleen Mavourneen (n.d.); The Keeper of the Robes (n.d.); Kitty Clive and other plays (1929); The Life of Oliver Goldsmith (1910); The Marriage of Barbara (1911); The Messenger (1907); The Original Woman (1904); The Romance of a Red Cross Hospital (1915); The Sale of a Soul (n.d.); Shipmates in Sunshine (1903); The Silver Sickle (1891); Sojourners Together (1875); That Holy Kiss (1928); Told by the Sea (1877); The Truth about Ulster (1914); The Ulsterman (1914); Where the Rail Runs Now (1876); The White Causeway (1905).

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Booksellers
Richard Beaton (Lewes, S. Sussex), lists first editions:-

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