FRANK BURKE HONOURED

FRANK BURKE HONOURED

The Leinster Leader of 7 April 1984 reported on an event that took place the previous Sunday to honour Carbury G.A.A. players. Among those honoured was the famous G.A.A. player, teacher and republican Frank Burke who had associations with Carbury going back over seventy years. Born in Carbury in 1895, Frank Burke went to school in Derrinturn N.S. and played football in Carbury before he moved to Dublin where he attended Pádraig Pearse’s St Enda’s School, attended UCD and later joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) before fighting in the G.P.O. in 1916 where his sister Eva joined him. He was subsequently interned in Stafford Jail.

Frank Burke is also widely recognised as one of the great G.A.A. players of this era, playing in 9 All-Ireland Senior Finals with Dublin (winning two hurling titles 1917&1920 and three football (1921. 1922 and 1923). He played on the Dublin team that played Tipperary in a challenge game in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday 21 November 1920 and was playing directly against Michael Hogan who tragically died on the pitch on that day.

For a full account of Frank Burke’s life see the Dictionary of Irish Biography Entry here: https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a1156&searchClicked=clicked&quickadvsearch=yes

Frank Burke’s son Éanna De Búrca, also co-authored the excellent The Frank Burke Story with Carbury native Gerry Cummins that was published in 2016.