Christopher Burke (Irish revolutionary)
Irish revolutionary
Christopher Patrick Burke (4 August 1898 – 23 June 1964) was an Irish revolutionary, hunger striker and sportsman from the prominent Drogheda family, the Burkes of Duleek Street. At just 21, he was made officer in command of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) Arsenal in Bailieborough, County Cavan, on the recommendation of General Seán Mac Eoin. During the Irish Civil War, he underwent a hunger strike lasting twenty-three days.
Early life
Burke was born on 4 August 1898 on Coola Street, Drogheda, County Louth, to Christopher Patrick Burke, secretary of the gas works, and Mary McQuillan. He lived the first eight years of his life on Coola Street, and was raised in a well-off family. However, things took a turn for the worse with the death of Christopher Burke Sr. from Bright's disease on 12 October 1906 at the age of just 44. With the family's source of income gone, his mother moved with him and his five siblings to live with her siblings on Duleek Street.
Revolutionary activities
Burke joined the Irish Volunteers in 1917, and after two years in its ranks, during which he was promoted to officership, the General Headquarters ordered him to sever, outwardly, his connections with the organisation, which he did. After being released from prison in the Drogheda Foundry, he was the only man in the IRA who could forge cast iron hand grenades which would fragment.
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