The Murder of Moss Moore, Ireland, 1958
A Grim Murder Story That Lives On In A Play And A Film
The photo below gives an idea of the remoteness of the area around Reamore, North Kerry. It was even more so in 1958, when the small, slight, body of Moss Moore was found in an overgrown stream, ten days after he disappeared.
1950s Rural Ireland appears old-fashioned to Irish people now
Ireland had fought long and hard for its independence from the British Empire. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 led to the establishment of the “Irish Free State” in 1922. This was led by an Executive Council, with W T Cosgrave as President, and included 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties. The six Ulster counties with Protestant majorities opted out.
The “Free State” remained a British Dominion until 1931, when it became an independent country. In 1937, Ireland’s new constitution (Bunreacht na hÉireann) was instituted. It had a strong Roman Catholic ethos; no divorce, no abortion, no contraception. Women were expected to give up their jobs if/when they married.
On 18 April 1949, the Ireland Act offcially ended remaining links to the British Empire. The country was named as “Eire” and declared a republic. From 1959–1973 its President was the strongly conservative Éamon de Valera, who previously succeeded WT Cosgrave as Free State President.
Towards the end of de Valera’s Presidency, I remember the “Condom Train” travelling to Dublin from Belfast to distribute illegal contraceptives to Irish people.
Ireland was starting to change, whether de Valera liked it or not. But in the late 1950s, rural Ireland was quiet, everyone went to Mass on Sunday, and farming was the main economic activity.
Moss Moore and Dan Foley
Moore was a quiet, timid, bachelor who shared his home with two dogs. He had mentioned to people that he feared for his life. On Thursday 6 November 1958, he played cards at the house of Julia Collins. He set off for his home at 10.30pm, with only a bicycle lamp for light.
He would not be seen alive again, except by his murderer. He was 46 when he died.
Dan Foley was physically the opposite of Moore, and 12 years older. A big strong man, who lived with his wife and her brother on their smallholding only 100 yards (91.4 metres) from Moore’s home. The men had been friends and neighbours, helping each other with jobs like cutting turf and harvesting crops.
They farmed by day and played cards at night; there was not much else to do in Reamore then.
When Foley’s cattle started wandering into the bog, he put up a fence to keep them in. Moore, who claimed this fence took part of his land, asked Foley to move the fence, which he did.
Then Moore started a court action to make this permanent, so Foley could never erect the fence again. The case was to be heard at Tralee in December 1958.
The search for Moss Moore
Press photographers, whose job was a novelty in 1950s rural Ireland, descended on the area and took many photos. Dan Foley was helping with the search, but neighbours already suspected he had harmed Moore, because of the boundary dispute.
On 15 November 1958, Moore’s body was found under a ledge, cut out by a stream when it flooded. It was only 35 yards (32 metres) from his house.
His neighbours took the body straight to his farm to be waked there. Autopsy showed that Moore had been strangled, and his body placed in the gully before rigor mortis had time to set in. After more than a week, many people had walked over the ground near the stream.
This would have destroyed any evidence present, though forensic science was in its infancy then; “Every contact leaves a trace.” These days, a crime scene is immediately closed to the public. Even in the 1950s, the police should have known better.
The only evidence against Foley was circumstantial, or impossible to prove; the boundary dispute, his physical strength, and scratch marks on his face, which he said were caused by the horns of a bull.
A few days before Moore disappeared, Foley allegedly told one neighbour that only one of the parties would be present at Tralee court. This looks incriminating, but it is not clear what he meant. It is possible he was planning on ignoring the case by not turning up, or maybe the neighbour invented the story. We don’t know.
While Foley was the prime suspect, the police had insufficient evidence to convict him. Local people ostracised him and his family; the local shop would not serve them and nobody would buy their cattle.
Dan Foley died of a heart attack outside his home, some five years after Moore’s death. Neighbours continued to harass his wife, who insisted he was innocent.
John B Keane and The Field
Unsurprisingly, this dark and tragic story appealed to local writer and playwright John B Keane, who lived and worked at his pub in Listowel. It inspired his play, “The Field.”
He too was harassed by local people, who all had their own version of the story. The emotional strain of working on such a topic, in the area where it happened, is obvious. Keane changed details (his murder victim is a “blow-in,” an Irish term for an immigrant) and he understood the complexity of such issues.
His play was premiered in 1965. A highly successful film by Jim Sheridan, released in 1990, is also loosely based on the Moss Moore murder.
Unsurprisingly, so many different versions of the original story have become confused in people’s minds.
Conclusions
Occam’s Razor supports the contention that Dan Foley killed Moss Moore, but we can’t be certain.
The lack of forensic evidence makes it unlikely this murder will ever be definitively solved. It would be relatively easy to solve with modern techniques, or at least to confirm or eliminate the alleged killer.
Public opinion is too fickle and based on emotion to be a good guide. It has tried and convicted too many innocent people over the years. Oversimplifying complex issues is an (often unintentional) form of lying, where a sensational result is preferred to in-depth investigation.
Most neighbours believed Foley was guilty, but his wife and nephew never accepted this. Others, like the photographer Padriag Kennelly, said the full story was never told. In 2017 Brian Devaney wrote “What Lies Beneath,” a critical psychological study of John B Keane’s play and its context.
Moss Moore may have had other enemies; the fact that he was keen to go to court even after Foley removed the fence suggests a bossy and petulant character.
Fighting and killing over something as fundamentally important as land has always happened, and will continue. Everyone wants their own home, on land they legally own, and not just in Ireland. Challenging this often leads to violence.
Sources
https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsandculture/arid-40194819.html
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/the-murder-that-inspired-keanes-the-field/37914918.html
