Séamus Burke

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For other people with the same name, see James Burke.

Séamus Aloysius Burke (sometimes spelt Bourke) (14 June 1893–1 January 1967) was an Irish Cumann na nGaedhael and Fine Gael politician.

He was first elected to Dáil Éireann in the 1918 general election as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála for Tipperary. He supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921 and went on to become a founder-member of Cumann na nGaedhael and later Fine Gael. Burke served in the governments of W. T. Cosgrave in the 1920s. A very strong political opponent of De Valera he lost his seat in the 1938 general election and after unsuccessfully standing again as an independent at the 1943 general election, he retired from politics and moved to England . He was married to Zenaide Bashkiroff Burke, a Russian Aristocrat who was the niece of Prince Felix Yussupov, the assassin of Rasputin. She supported him well in their political endeavours; she wrote a memoir of their life titled "Views from a Window".

Political offices
Preceded by Ernest Blythe	Minister for Local Government & Public Health 1923–1927	Succeeded by Richard Mulcahy
Preceded by Eamonn Duggan	Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance 1927–1932	Succeeded by Hugo Flinn