Seldom known to anyone by anything other than "Mick", he was a major organisational figure in the Labour Party's early history and went on to become a significant politician in his own right as an MP and cabinet minister.

Returned to England where the land 'fit for heroes' didn't emerge and emigrated to New Zealand in 1922, where he joined the Labour Party.

Attributed to his Irish upbringing he was described as a versatile speaker who could infuse almost any speech with an entertaining and effective mixture of both 'banter and bite'.

[4] In 1959 he travelled to Warsaw as a delegate to the International Parliamentary Union and then went to London to study developments in telephone cable and postal procedures.

[2] His main accomplishment was the construction of a state of the art rail ferry, the Aramoana, to operate across Cook Strait.

[4] Despite his cabinet ranking, Moohan was one of a group of three Labour MPs (the others being Bill Fox and Frank Kitts) who were deeply critical of the decisions made in the "Black Budget".

Alongside Bill Fox and Warren Freer, he was one of the few senior Labour MPs who backed Norman Kirk's successful challenge to Nordmeyer in 1965.

[14] Moohan had been indifferent health and was absent from Parliament for seven weeks in July and August 1966 suffering from a throat complaint.