John de Burgh

Who was John de Burgh?

John de Burgh, or de Burgo, or Burke was an Irish Roman Catholic clergyman who served as Vicar Apostolic and Bishop of Clonfert from 1629 to 1647 and Archbishop of Tuam from 1647 to 1667.

John de Burgh was a member of the Clanricarde Burkes of County Galway. He and his brother Hugh were taught by a member of the Ó Maolconaire family, from whom they learned very considerable Greek and Latin. John and Hugh left for the continent in 1614, John to Lisbon, Hugh to Louvain where he joined the Franciscans. John de Burgh was ordained a priest and returned to Ireland around 1624, working for two years in the Diocese of Tuam under Boetius Egan. In 1627, on Egan's recommendation, he was appointed Apostolic Vicar of the Diocese of Clonfert by a papal brief on 13 October 1629.

During the projected Plantation of Connacht in the 1630s, his influence on Catholic members of the 1634 Parliament was so great that Lord Stafford issued warrants for his arrest, necessitating de Burgh hideing until the Viceroy's recall. On the recomentation of Bishop MacEgan of Elphin, he was appointed to Bishop of Clonfert on 16 October 1641, and consecrated on 9 April 1642.