JOHN MOORE,
Leader of the English Armies,
killed in battle,
16 January, 1809.
In attempting to raise a memorial to Kilkee the simple brevity of the French inscription to the memory of the English General killed at the battle of Coruña, cannot be imitated. Yet as Sir John Moore, though he wanted that perfect self-confidence in great emergencies, which belongs only to the highest order of minds, died in his duty like a gallant soldier, and fills an honourable grave, and his name will be for ever associated with chivalrous courage, keen sense of honour, and enthusiastic devotion to the duties of his profession and the service of his country; so the name of Kilkee will be associated with the exertion, not merely of honest industry, but of extraordinary energy and enterprise in the creation of a flourishing town under the blighting curse of the English law of landlord and tenant—a law belonging to the pirate age, and made by men who were barbarians and robbers.
The disgrace of the frightful robbery committed on those poor Irish labourer-tenants who, after
