Michael Burke (poet) facts for kids

Michael Burke (Irish: Mícheál de Búrca or Mícheál de Búrc; c. 1800 – 6 July 1881) was an Irish poet.

Who Was Michael Burke?

Michael Burke was born around 1800. He grew up in a place called Bresk in Ireland. This was near the town of Athenry. He went to school at the Dominican College in Esker. Later, he became a teacher at Esker National School. People often called him "The Schoolmaster of Esker" because of this.

Some parts of his early life are not fully known. We do know that Michael was very smart. He could speak, read, and write in many languages. These included Latin, Greek, Irish, and English.

After 1839, Michael Burke moved to the United States. He lived in Brooklyn, New York. In 1853, he was teaching at a Catholic Orphan Asylum there. He was known as a great scholar and poet. He wrote many poems in the Irish language. Michael Burke passed away in his home in Brooklyn in 1881.

The Night of the Big Wind

Michael Burke's most famous work is a poem called Oíche na Gaoithe Móire. This means "Night of the Big Wind" in Irish. The poem is about a very strong windstorm. This storm swept across Ireland on the night of January 6–7, 1839. It caused a lot of damage to homes and buildings. Sadly, several hundred people also died.

The storm arrived very suddenly. It turned towns dark, which made people even more scared. The winds were so strong that things inside houses flew around. The noise was so loud that people had to use signs to talk to each other. Thousands of people had to leave their damaged homes quickly. Many farm animals also died. The River Shannon flooded large areas of the countryside.

Burke's poem has fifteen verses. It gives a very clear picture of the storm. He even compared it to God's anger, like the great flood in the story of Noah's Ark. However, Burke also noted something interesting. The damage from the storm created a lot of work for tradesmen. Thatchers, slaters, carpenters, and masons were all very busy fixing things.

Even though the poem was well-known when Burke was alive, it was later forgotten. By the 1900s, both Michael Burke and his famous poem were no longer remembered. Even the Irish language, in which he wrote, was less common in his home area.