Family Background
Burke is generally accepted to have been the son of Richard an Fhorbhair mac William de Burgh, who was himself a grandson of Richard Óge de Burgh, an illegitimate son of William de Burgh, the founder of the family. According to A New History of Ireland (p. 170, volume IX), "The origins of the Clanricard line are not sbsolutly proven, but the descent given" (see Family Tree, below) "is that in the best Irish genealogical sources and is not contradicted by contempoary sources."
He possessed an unusual nickname — Bod-an-Balcuigh, which translated to "Penis of Power".
Read more about this topic: Uilleag De Burgh
Famous quotes containing the words family and/or background:
“The son will run away from the family not at eighteen but at twelve, emancipated by his gluttonous precocity; he will fly not to seek heroic adventures, not to deliver a beautiful prisoner from a tower, not to immortalize a garret with sublime thoughts, but to found a business, to enrich himself and to compete with his infamous papa.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)