{{Short description|Irish activist and politician (1907–1998)}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=March 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | image = | office = [[Seanad Éireann|Senator]] | term_start = 21 April 1948 | term_end = 6 December 1950 | constituency = [[Agricultural Panel]] | birth_date = {{birth date|1907|3|1|df=y}} | birth_place = [[County Galway]], Ireland | death_date = {{death date and age|1998|9|20|1907|3|1|df=y}} | death_place = | party = [[Labour Party (Ireland)|Labour Party]] | spouse = Ann Grattan | children = | alma_mater = | education = |}} '''Robert Malachy Burke''' (1 March 1907 – 20 September 1998) was an Irish [[Christian socialist]], philanthropist and politician. He was born into a landed [[Church of Ireland]] family at Ballydugan, [[Loughrea]], [[County Galway]].
He was active (alongside his wife, Ann Grattan of [[Belfast]]) in a variety of organisations in the fields of community development, co-operativism, peace activism, religion, and politics. At Toghermore, [[Tuam]] (the birthplace of his mother, Ethel Maud Henry), where he came to live following his parents' separation, he established an innovative [[Cooperative|co-operative]] farm.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Devine|first= F. |year=2017|title=The Irish Transport & General Workers' Union in Galway, 1918-1930|journal=Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society |volume=69|pages=130–149|jstor= 44751642 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/44751642}}</ref>
As a [[Labour Party (Ireland)|Labour Party]] representative, he sat on [[Galway County Council]], but despite polling strongly in [[Galway East]] at a number of elections, he was not elected to the [[Dáil Éireann]].<ref name=elecs_irl>{{cite web|url=http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=1843|title=Robert Burke|work=ElectionsIreland.org|access-date=21 July 2023}}</ref>
He was elected to [[Seanad Éireann]] in 1948 for the [[Agricultural Panel]], but resigned his seat on 6 December 1950.<ref name=oireachtas_db>{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Robert-Malachy-Burke.S.1948-04-21/|title=Robert Malachy Burke|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=13 April 2009}}</ref>
Following the death of his mother, Burke gifted his property to the Irish health authorities for use in the struggle against [[tuberculosis]], and, early in 1951, he took up a position as a development worker with an Anglican charity in [[Nigeria]]. Alongside his wife, he worked during the next decades with various agencies in Africa, before the couple retired to Belfast. He died in 1998.<ref name=hist>{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/1998-10-14/3/|title=Death of Former Members: Expressions of Sympathy|date=14 October 1998|work=Houses of the Oireachtas|access-date=8 January 2020}}</ref>
==Sources== *John Cunningham, 'Bobby Burke: Christian Socialist', in J.A. Claffey (ed.) Glimpses of Tuam since the Famine, Tuam 1997, pp. 239–53.
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Members of the 6th Seanad}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burke, Robert Malachy}} [[Category:1907 births]] [[Category:1998 deaths]] [[Category:Irish Anglicans]] [[Category:20th-century Irish farmers]] [[Category:Labour Party (Ireland) senators]] [[Category:Members of the 6th Seanad]] [[Category:People from Loughrea]] [[Category:People from County Galway]] [[Category:Irish Christian socialists]] [[Category:Anglican socialists]] [[Category:Members of Galway County Council]] [[Category:Labour Party (Ireland) candidates in Dáil elections]] [[Category:Agricultural Panel senators]]