Richard "the Iron" Bourke

Richard "the Iron" Bourke (Irish: Risdeárd an Iarainn Bourke; English: /bɜːrk/; BURK; d. 1583), 18th Mac William Íochtar (Lower Mac William), was an Irish chieftain and noble.

Richard Bourke
18th Mac William Íochtar
Risdeárd an Iarainn Búrca
Arms of Bourke of Mayo[1]
Died1583

Bourke was a son of David de Búrca, 15th Mac William Íochtar, by his second wife, Finola Ni Flaithbertaigh. He succeeded his cousin, Seaán mac Oliver (John) Bourke, 17th Mac William Íochtar (d.1580), a great-grandson of Ricard Ó Cuairsge Bourke, 7th Mac William Íochtar (d.1479).

In English, he was known as Richard Bourke, or "Iron Richard". In medieval Ireland, Richard was a rare name, most found in Norman-origin families like the Bourkes. Richard was second husband to Grace O'Malley. He was the father of several children, including Tibbot ne Long Bourke, 1st Viscount Mayo (23rd Mac William Íochtar).

During the uneven anglicisation of Ireland in the 1500s, by the policy of "Surrender and regrant", Richard signed an agreement with the Crown in 1581 which uniquely left him in autonomous control of his part of County Mayo.[2]

Richard was succeeded, as Mac William Íochtar, by his predecessor's brother, Richard Bourke, 19th Mac William Íochtar (d.1586).

Genealogy
Mac William Íochtar Genealogy

References
  1. Burke, Bernard (1884). The general armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; comprising a registry of armorial bearings from the earliest to the present time. University of California Libraries. London : Harrison & sons.
  2. "Burke (de Burgh), Sir Richard (Risdeard an Iarainn, Richard an Iron, 'Iron Dick') | Dictionary of Irish Biography". www.dib.ie. Retrieved 21 December 2021.

Further reading
  • The History of Mayo, Hubert T. Knox. 1908.
  • Lower Mac William and Viscounts of Mayo, 1332-1649, in A New History of Ireland IX, pp. 235–36, Oxford, 1984 (reprinted 2002).


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