Latest news with #RebeccaMoore
Irish Times
09-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Irish Blood, Irish Heart: Frank McNally on a Mancunian hibernophile, Sir Norman Moore
Manchester-born and Cambridge-educated, the baronet, pathologist, and historian Sir Norman Moore (1847 – 1922) was in some ways a pillar of the English establishment. But the defining events of his life included an encounter at Crewe railway station, one night while waiting for a connection, with two travelling harvest workers from County Mayo. Moore was able to greet them in their native language, after which they all drank coffee together, discussing Irish history at length. Eighteen years later, one of the men wrote to him, having seen his address in a newspaper, and this time seeking his expertise on a chronic illness. The English medical man helped cure the patient, eventually, and they became regular correspondents thereafter. This is one just example of a deep entanglement with Ireland and its culture, including the language, that Moore inherited from his unconventional parents. READ MORE He was the only child of the political economist Robert Ross Rowan Moore and his Limerick Quaker wife, Rebecca (née Fisher), already estranged by the time of Norman's birth. Raised mostly by his mother and her liberal non-conformist friends in Manchester, Moore Jnr left school early to work in a cotton mill. But he later studied at St Catherine's College, Cambridge, and won an eight-year residential scholarship there, to help set up a school of science, before he was 'rusticated' (a polite word for expelled) because of involvement in a scuffle. Staying with a friend near Ballymena, he discussed Virgil and Homer with a local ploughman. After that, he enrolled in St Bartholomew's, London, to study anatomy, and was involved with that hospital for the rest of his life, writing its history in a two-volume set, published in 1918. Alongside his medical career, meanwhile, he had become a scholar of Irish, a language he learned in childhood. One measure of his engagement with it is that, to help him understand the 11th century Leabhar na Huidri (Book of the Dun Cow), he read an Irish grammar book by a German professor, and was so impressed with that as to contact the author and ask permission to translate it into English. His version of the book was later considered by at least one expert to be an improvement on the original. Moore was also a frequent visitor to his ancestral homeland, a country he approached with the zeal of a pilgrim. On first seeing the Rock of Cashel, for example, he eulogised: 'My mother's ancestor Ceallachán was king of Caisil and when I crossed the plain and saw the grand old rock […] I rejoiced to feel that it was no strange or foreign grandeur which surrounded its old towers but a kindly family love.' Walking Ireland's back roads, he sometimes slept rough. He was in west Donegal the night that, unbeknownst to him, his father died. Many years later, he recalled: 'I slept on a wild mountain ... called Lough Salt. I was ignorant of his illness. I had lost my way and was very tired so I lay down in a hollow and covered myself with pieces of turf to keep off the wind which swept furiously across the mountain. Fierce driving rain followed but at last I fell asleep and when I awoke it was a clear, starlight morning. I walked on thinking of the protecting care of God. My father had been dying that night and I had walked on, as far as strong worldly protectors go, alone in the world. But God has always been my helper and to Him I will always turn for help.' Moore was struck by, among other things, the level of classical learning in 19th century Ireland, even among the poor. Staying with a friend near Ballymena, he discussed Virgil and Homer with a local ploughman and reflected critically on the writings of a previous scholar a century earlier: 'Dr Charles Smith, whose survey of Kerry, [was] published in 1774, noted that 'classical reading extends itself, even to a fault , among the lower and poorer kind in this county.' The `fault', in his estimation, was that it took their attention away from more useful knowledge.' Even when in England, Moore could commune with the old country, something he did on his 30th birthday. 'As I could not be in Ireland on that day I chose Glastonbury', he wrote, because 'many Irishmen spent religious lives there'. Kneeling at what he thought was the former location of a high altar, he made a vow 'that I would always prefer duty and learning to money.' Of his sense of identity, Moore said this: 'I am myself, but I am more. I have received a sort of trust from my dead ancestors.' After winning the affections of his future wife, Amy Leigh Smith, he wrote: 'In giving your heart to me, my dear one, you gave it to Ireland. You are all the world of people to me and Ireland is all the world of land.' This extraordinary man seems to have been largely ignored in the country he loved and has since been forgotten. But he will get some overdue recognition next week, when Dr Elizabeth Boyle of Maynooth University gives a talk on his life and work at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. The event is on Thursday, May 15th, at 5.30pm. More details are at
BBC News
13-02-2025
- General
- BBC News
Colchester Zoo says Brexit had 'major impact' on breeding
Brexit has had "a major impact" on zoo breeding programmes across Europe, according to an Essex than 60 species at Colchester Zoo have taken part in breeding programmes, but its zoological director, Rebecca Moore, said the number of transfers has dropped since the UK left the European Union, with an increase in paperwork and told the BBC projects with other zoos had become "a lot more difficult…time-consuming [and] expensive".It came as the government said it was seeking a new veterinary agreement with the EU and was trying to minimise disruption when importing and exporting zoo animals. 'Critically endangered' Colchester Zoo has welcomed several new arrivals in recent months, including two Amur leopard cubs, of which there are fewer than 100 left in the wild."The species itself is critically endangered, so anything that zoos can do to help breed is vital in its importance to its existence," said Emma Rasey, team leader of the zoo's carnivore section. Roo, a baby aardvark, is the 13th offspring of OQ, the most successful breeding aardvark in the UK. Her keeper, Jo Burch, said breeding programmes were vital for education purposes."A lot of people would never get the opportunity to see anything apart from their British wildlife, so it is important that we house these animals to educate people," she told the Moore said animals at the zoo which are involved in breeding programmes are coordinated on a European level, but leaving the EU has made this process more complicated."Previously we used to move animals relatively easily between the UK and mainland Europe," she said, adding that since Brexit, "the transfers have got less and less in number"."It really sees an impact on us being able to contribute to those European breeding programmes," she continued. The zoological director said changes in paperwork and legislation were needed."We hope that the government will look to do an agreement that will make it easier to move animals," Ms Moore said."That would then speed up the process and make the whole organisation of it a lot simpler."A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told the BBC: "We continue to work closely with our European counterparts when importing and exporting zoo animals to minimise disruption."They added: "We are also seeking a new veterinary agreement with the EU to strengthen our trade ties." 'Part of life' Speaking publicly for the first time about the recent death of one of its zebras, Ms Moore said there were "no plans" to make any changes to the shared enclosure where it the zebra was fatally wounded by a rhino in an accident in January, described by Ms Moore as "a sad, unfortunate incident"."It was a huge impact for all of the staff," she told the BBC."It wasn't the result of a vicious attack or anything like that," she added."It is part of life - they have lived together for many years peacefully."The zoo, which recently started life as a charity after years of private ownership, has more than 1.5 million visitors a year. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
