Burkeor Bourke Thomas Henry

Burke, or Bourke, Thomas Henry, was born of Catholic family at Knocknagur, county Galway, Ireland, in 1829, and having received his education in Belgium, in Germany, and at Trinity College, Dublin, became in 1847 private secretary to Sir Thomas Bedington, then Irish Secretary, and held the same post under Mr. Chichester Fortescue, Sir Robert Peel, and Lord Hartington. He had very early in his career provoked the animosity of the Nationalists by using the private papers of Smith O'Brien for the purpose of procuring his conviction, nor had his subsequent services at the Castle tended to diminish his unpopularity. In 1868 he was appointed permanent under-secretary, and it was his misfortune to be associated as a faithful subordinate with the coercive measures of successive governments. A secret band of desperadoes, styling themselves "The Invincibles," resolved to get rid of the objectionable official. He was stabbed whilst walking in the Phoenix Park (May 6, 1882) with the newly-appointed Chief Secretary, Lord Frederick Cavendish, whose life was also sacrificed. Joseph Brady, the ringleader in the conspiracy, with several other accomplices, was convicted of the crime in the following year chiefly through the treachery of James Carey, one of the gang.