Jack Bourke:DESPITE BEING a Dubliner, Jack Bourke, who has died at the age of 82, had the rare distinction of serving as mayor of Limerick on three occasions.
He was a member of the city council for 40 years, chairman of the regional health board for nearly half his political life and also managed a successful theatre.
He made headlines in 1970 when controversy erupted over references by then mayor of Limerick Steve Coughlan TD to the city’s Jewish pogrom of 1904.
In defence of his adopted city, Bourke rejected claims by solicitor Gerald Goldberg, who later became lord mayor of Cork, that Limerick was “reeking with bigotry and conservatism”.
His politics were old-style Fianna Fáil. Following his election to the city council in 1967 he went on to represent the former ward three for four decades, tightening his political grip across a broad swathe of the city’s sprawling southside.
He was elected in a series of successful campaigns under the slogan “I’m backing Jack”.
Persuaded to enter politics by the former minister for education, Donogh O’Malley, he remained a stalwart member of the party throughout his life and was a mentor of current TD Willie O’Dea.
On his passing, O’Dea recalled: “When I was starting out and was the only Fianna Fáil TD after Desmond O’Malley set up the Progressive Democrats, he was a great source of advice. He was a great man to work with me in the background.”
He described him as “a very wise man, highly articulate and a great person to be around”.
Born in Dublin, Bourke spent his boyhood days in Collins Avenue, Whitehall, before entering the family-owned theatre business.
His father, Lorcan, a former lord mayor of Dublin, owned Dublin’s Gaiety and Olympia theatres.
In 1953 Bourke went to Limerick to run the City Theatre, a 1,000-seater venue that flourished under his management and became the venue for an annual 10-week festival of Irish theatre. He later opened the city’s first omniplex cinema at Roxboro shopping centre.
Part of the Bourke family collection of papers has been donated to the Belltable Arts Centre while records of the War of Independence were given to Sarsfield Barracks.
An elegant figure, he had a great sense of style, a wry sense of humour and a rapier fast wit. He relished the cut and thrust of politics.
His other interests included swimming and golf.
First elected to Limerick City Council in 1967, he served as mayor in 1968, 1986, and 1999. Besides being the city’s first Dublin-born mayor since 1842, he had the honour of ringing in the millennium as its first citizen.
His initial bid for the mayoralty was a knife-edge affair, ending in a tie with Labour’s Steve Coughlan, at eight votes each.
Bourke’s name was finally drawn from a hat by a schoolboy who was in the council chamber at the time.
Later in his political career, he failed in two bids for the Senate in 1993 and in 1997.
Proud of his 18-year tenure as chairman of the mid-western health board, he was highly critical of the health service under the Health Service Executive.
He was irate when, following a stroke, his wife Monica (Mo), who died last year, had to spend 24 hours on a trolley at the regional hospital, her two daughters sleeping on the floor beside her.
Bourke said he felt ashamed to have his name on a plaque at the hospital.
Paying tribute to his many achievements, current mayor Jim Long said: “He was flamboyant, very articulate, very strong in his views, but he was also very balanced. He served Limerick well”.
Predeceased by his wife Monica, he is survived by his daughters Deirdre and Orla, sons Declan and Niall, sister Joan, and uncle Peadar.
Jack Bourke: born April 26th, 1929; died February 25th, 2012