Thomas Henry Burke

Who was Thomas Henry Burke?

Thomas Henry Burke was Permanent Under Secretary at the Irish Office for many years before being killed during the Phoenix Park Murders on Saturday 6 May 1882. The killing was carried out by an Irish republican organisation called the Irish National Invincibles. The newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland Lord Frederick Cavendish, although not the intended victim, was assassinated alongside him while they walked through Phoenix Park in Dublin. The victims were slashed and stabbed about the neck and chest with surgical blades.

Thomas Burke was the Invincibles' intended target because he had been working for the British establishment as head of the Civil Service for many years and was associated with the British coercion policy during the Land War, 1879–82. Irish nationalists referred to Burke as the "Castle rat".