Background

Bourke was born in Carrowcubick, near Ballycastle

Ballycastle

Ballycastle can refer to:*Ballycastle, County Antrim, a small town in Northern Ireland*Ballycastle, County Mayo, a village in the Republic of Ireland...

, County Mayo

County Mayo

County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...

, about 1765. Brendan Hoban states that he "was of that branch fo the Bourke family that became known as the 'Heathfield' Bourkes, who base was at Heathfield House, in the townland of Gortatoor, a few miles from what is now the village of Ballycastle" (p. 12, Hoban, 2008).

He was a descendant of Oliver fitz Richard Ruadh Bourke, and a brother of Walter Kittagh Bourke; Oliver's nephew, Tiobóid mac Walter Ciotach Bourke

Tiobóid mac Walter Ciotach Bourke

-Reference:* 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 ....

 (died c. 1606) was the 21st Mac William Iochtar

Mac William Íochtar

Mac William Íochtar was a term meaning both a territory and a title in Ireland. The territory covered much of the northern part of the province of Connacht. The Mac William Íochtar functioned as a regional king and received the White Rod...

. Oliver second wife, Mary, was a sister of Tiobóid, and Mary's son, Ulick, had a son, Oliver, who married Elizabeth Rutledge. From this marriage came the Bourkes of Heathfield, the Palmer-Bourke and Paget-Bourke families. Descendants include Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson

Mary Therese Winifred Robinson served as the seventh, and first female, President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002. She first rose to prominence as an academic, barrister, campaigner and member of the Irish Senate...

, President of Ireland

President of Ireland

The President of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland. The President is usually directly elected by the people for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...

 from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002, whose great-great grandfather was John Bourke of Heathfield, a brother of Charles.

Little seems to be known about Charles's parents beyond their names, Rowland Bourke and Mary Cormick, and that they were of a branch of the Heathfield family known as the Crotty Bourkes, as they had property in the townland of Crott, Carrowcubick. Among their family were John, Charles, and Ulick, a Franciscan

Franciscan

Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....

.

However, Bourke's family possessed enough wealth to have Charles educated at the Irish College

Irish College

Irish Colleges is the collective name used for approximately 34 centres of education for Irish Catholic clergy and lay people opened on continental Europe in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The Colleges were set up to educate Roman Catholics from Ireland in their own religion following the...

, Salamanca

Salamanca

Salamanca is a city in western Spain, in the community of Castile and León. Because it is known for its beautiful buildings and urban environment, the Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. It is the most important university city in Spain and is known for its contributions to...

 in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 following being taught at a local hedge school

Hedge school

A hedge school is the name given to an educational practice in 18th and 19th century Ireland, so called due to its rural nature. It came about as local educated men began an oral tradition of teaching the community...

. He was ordained in 1792.

Baton Rouge

He volunteered for service in Spanish Louisiana, becoming the first priest of Baton Rouge in 1792. Following an investigation into his conducted by the Bishop of New Orleans, he left Louisiana, returning to County Mayo in 1800.

Red River Mission

In 1811, he became chaplain

Chaplain

Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...

 for a proposed colony of Irish Catholics and Scottish Presbyterians at what is now Red River

Red River of the North

The Red River is a North American river. Originating at the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers in the United States, it flows northward through the Red River Valley and forms the border between the U.S. states of Minnesota and North Dakota before continuing into Manitoba, Canada...

, Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 and North Dakota

North Dakota

North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....

, initated by Lord Thomas Selkirk. However, he left without permission of his bishop, Dominick Bellew. he returned home in 1812 having never reached Red River.

Appointment of Peter Waldron

In 1812, Bourke became involved with a dispute over the appointment of a priest from the Diocese of Tuam, Peter Waldron, who was to succeed Bishop Bellew. Upon Waldron's appointment, Bourke continued his opposition. In 1817 he published a pamphlet

Pamphlet

A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...

, Popish Episcopal Tyrranny Exposed, which led to his suspension and - according to his own account - excommunication

Excommunication

Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...

. He appealed to Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

 Pius VII.

Popish Episcopal Tyrranny Exposed

In the forty-eight page pamphlet, Bourke gave his reasons for his opposition to Waldron's appointment, but also pondered on wider questions:

"That the lives of the Roman Catholic clergy, at this day in Ireland, as well as on the continent, are not much more correct than those of the clergy at the time of the Reformation

Reformation

- Movements :* Protestant Reformation, an attempt by Martin Luther to reform the Roman Catholic Church that resulted in a schism, and grew into a wider movement...

, which Martin Luther

Luther

As a German surname, Luther is derived from a Germanic personal name compounded from the words liut, "people", and heri, "army". As a rare English surname, it means "lute player" . Luther is also derived from the ancient Greek eleutherius, a liberator...

 inveighed against them, is a melancholy truth, which cannot be denied; and which ought to make a serious impression on the minds of those who justly appreciate our most holy religion, which may suffer at present, as it did formerly, from the severe scourge of one of its own members." (p. 172, Hoban, 2008)

According to his biographer, Brendan Hoban:

"Bourke could hardly set himself up as a model of priesthood and his disloyalty to the priests who stood up for him does him no service. ... The key ... to understanding Bourke's comprehensive denunciation of his fellow clergy ... is that Bourke had conformed to the Established Church and the main readers of his writing were his now fellow Protestants ... So Bourke's comments have to be placed in the context of the cunt and thrust of the Bible War, what Desmond Bowen called the 'Protestant crusade in Ireland', the evangelical campaign organised by fundamentalists in the Church of Ireland

Church of Ireland

The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...

to convert Catholics in a 'Second Reformation.'"(p. 173, Hoban, 2008)

Summing him up, Hoban describes Charles Bourke as "A flamboyant character" with "a very individual sence of humor ... He loved song, dance and drink and could be both the best and the worst of company. His great flaw was that he was always right. He was effortlessly tetchy and contentious, forver falling out with those around him, incapable of seeing other perspectives, incapable of compromise. ... He lived in interesting times and, from what we know of him, it was a fascinating adventure." (pp.181-182, Hoban, 2008)