Seaán mac Oliver Bourke

Seaán mac Oliver Bourke (died 1580), 17th Lord of Mac William Íochtar (the Lower Mac William or Mac William Oughter).

Burke was the son of Oliver of Tirawley and a great-grandson of Ricard Ó Cuairsge Bourke. He developed his power base using gallowglass mercenaries, and by 1570 was regarded as the next Mac William Íochtar (Lower Mac Williams). He was created Baron Ardenerie in May 1580.[1]

Despite the contemporaneous culture of those of his class, he had little love for war and seemed concerned for the well-being of his people. Upon being reproached by an old woman for burdening his people with the maintenance of his Scottish troops, he lamented that without them, they would be at the mercy of their enemies who would be just as burdensome.

Bourke is rightly famous as the patron of The Book of the Burkes. He spoke Irish and Latin, but not English.

He died on 24 November 1580[2] and was succeeded by his son William.

Notes and references

1. Cokayne 1910, p. 191, line 23: "being, in May 1580, cr. BARON OF ARDENERIE [I.], with rem. to the heirs male of his body."
2. Cokayne 1910, p. 191, line 24: "He d. 24 Nov. 1580."

• Cokayne, George Edward (1910), Gibbs, Vicary (ed.), The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, 1 (2nd ed.), London: St Catherine Press - AB-ADAM to BASING

Further reading

• Knox, Hubert T. (1908), The History of the County of Mayo to the Close of the Sixteenth Century, Dublin: Hodges, Figgis and Co.
• Lower Mac William and Viscounts of Mayo, 1332-1649, in A New History of Ireland IX, pp. 235–36, Oxford, 1984 (reprinted 2002).
• Burke (de Burgh), John (Seaan, Shane Mac Oliverus, Terry Clavin, inn Dictionary of Irish Biography from the Earliest Times to the Year 2002, edited by James McGuire and James Quinn, pp. 38–39. Cambridge, 2010.