"He will live in his Irish Melodies, they will go down to posterity with the music; both will last as long as Ireland, or as music and poetry."--Lord Byron A magnificent evocation of the life and times of a great Irish writer - romantic poet, passionate patriot and pioneering biographer. Tom Moore was a student at Trinity College, Dublin, during the doomed Irish rising of 1798 and this experience infused his sense of identity as an Irish Catholic throughout his life. In this vivid and sensitive biography, Kelly shows how a sense of purpose underpinned his charming and apparently light-hearted character and, at a dark time in its history, made him one of Ireland's most eloquent and persuasive advocates. Drawing extensively on previously unpublished journals, "Ireland's Minstrel" brilliantly captures the charm of Whig society and fully explores for the first time Moore's relationship with his closest friend, Lord Byron, from its origins in an abandoned duel to his ground-breaking biography.