Christy Burke

Christopher Burke (born 1948) is an independent Irish politician who has served as a Dublin City Councillor for the north inner city since 1985, and as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 2014 to 2015. A former member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, he served prison sentences on IRA membership charges in the 1970s before becoming involved in anti-drugs activism with the Concerned Parents Against Drugs movement in the early 1980s. He was first elected to Dublin City Council for Sinn Féin in 1985, and remained the party's sole city councillor for around fifteen years, before leaving Sinn Féin in 2009 following an unsuccessful bid for the Dublin Central Dáil seat. He has stood unsuccessfully for the Dáil ten times between 1982 and 2020. Burke has been associated with campaigning on homelessness and addiction in Dublin's north inner city, and was elected for a sixth term on the council at the 2024 Dublin City Council election.

Early life Burke was born in 1948 and reared in a one-room tenement house on Lurgan Street in Dublin's north inner city, one of 13 children, several of whom died in infancy due to tuberculosis and poor living conditions. He has recalled going hungry as a child and searching a bin at the rear of the tenement for food. Burke has said that eighteen days after completing one such sentence, he was rearrested and charged with IRA membership and possession of firearms, though the firearms charge was subsequently dropped; he also received a six-month sentence for lowering an Irish tricolour during a Bloody Sunday commemoration event at the Garden of Remembrance. By his own account, Burke rejoined the IRA upon leaving prison.

He was involved in negotiations during the Northern Ireland peace process in the 1990s and supported the IRA ceasefires.

Political career Anti-drugs activism and early political career In the early 1980s, Burke became involved in local politics and in anti-illegal drug trade activism in Dublin's north inner city. He co-founded the Concerned Parents Against Drugs movement with a Jesuit priest, Fr. Jim Smith, after being approached by mothers in the Hardwicke Street flats whose children were using heroin. Burke stood unsuccessfully in the 1982 by-election, receiving over 2,000 first-preference votes.

2009 Dublin Central by-election and departure from Sinn Féin In May 2009, Sinn Féin selected Burke, unopposed and as its longest-serving councillor, to contest the Dublin Central by-election caused by the death of independent TD Tony Gregory, with Mary Lou McDonald backing him as "the best left-wing candidate" in the field. Other candidates included Fine Gael's Paschal Donohoe, Labour's Ivana Bacik, Fianna Fáil's Maurice Ahern (a brother of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern) and independent Maureen O'Sullivan. He retained his council seat in the concurrent local elections but resigned from Sinn Féin three days later, saying his constituents would be best served by the "freedom" of an independent.

His departure led to criticism from Aengus Ó Snodaigh, chair of the party's Dublin branch, who said Burke had been promoted during the campaign as Sinn Féin's longest-serving councillor and called for the seat to be returned to the party.

Dáil election attempts Burke ran for the Dáil in Dublin Central ten times between 1982 and 2020, as well as in two by-elections, but was never elected. In the 1989 general election he missed out on a seat by 743 votes. Sinn Féin, then the largest grouping on Dublin City Council with 16 of its 63 seats, instead formed a coalition with the Labour Party, the Green Party and 11 independent councillors, under which the mayoralty rotated between the groupings, allowing Sinn Féin to hold the office through the 1916 centenary commemorations in 2016. Flynn, who was also an independent Dublin city councillor, had died earlier that month while under Garda investigation over alleged sexual assaults. At Flynn's funeral, Burke, a fellow councillor, described him as having "a heart of pure gold".

Personal life Burke married at the age of 17; the marriage ended in separation, and he has not remarried. He is a recovering alcoholic and has said he stopped drinking following treatment in 1979. He has five children, and has said one of his daughters shares his interest in politics and community work.

Burke is also known locally for his singing. He won a Joe Dolan impersonation competition in Mullingar against a field of other entrants, and a CD he subsequently recorded raised several thousand euro for charity. He has continued to use his singing to raise funds for children requiring cancer treatment abroad.