Poet. He was an early 19th century Irish poet and friend of authors Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. As a composer, many of his poems were set to music. He was born in Dublin as the son of either a Roman Catholic grocer or a shoemaker, according to different sources. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin and London, and published his first book, "The Poetical Works Of Thomas Little," in 1801. In 1803, he became a civil officer to Bermuda, where he stayed for a year, and then returned to England after travels in the United States and Canada. In 1813, he issued "The Twopenny Post Bag", a collection of satires directed against the Prince Regent. In 1817 he was paid 3,000 pounds, which was a record at that time, for his narrative poem "Lalla Rookh". In 1819, he was condemned to debtor's prison as his deputy in Bermuda had misappropriated money totaling £6000. Moore was held responsible for his deputy's crime. He left England with Lord John Russell for a visit to Italy and stayed in exile until the debt to the Admiralty had been paid by him, returning in 1822. In the next year, his "Loves of the Angels" became notorious for its eroticism but was financially successful. His most important work is the ten-volume "Irish Melodies," which was published between 1807 and 1834 and consisted of 130 poems set to music composed by Moore and Sir John Stevenson. "Irish Melodies" were translated into every European language. He turned down the post of "Irish Poet Laureate" because he felt it required toning down his politics. As a hero of the cause, he supported the Irish nationalists. In 1835, Moore was awarded a literary pension. In the same year, he published "The Fudges In England," which was a light satire about an Irish priest who turned Protestant evangelist, which was the literary absurdity of the day during the controversies surrounding the Catholic Emancipation, He remained a popular author for the rest of his life. He was awarded a Civil List pension in 1850. More than a million copies of "The Last Rose of Summer" were sold in the United State alone. He married a poor Protestant actress, Elizabeth "Bessy" Dyke, and the couple had five children with four dying young from tuberculosis. A son joined the army and was killed in action. As the Irish Potato Famine raged from 1845 to 1852, death was all around him with his wife, other family members and friends dying. His health declined with him dying in 1852. Eight volumes of memoirs and other writings were published posthumously.