He was born in Dublin in about 1821, the fifth child and eldest son of Thomas Kirk and Eliza Robinson.

He lived in Jervis Street and studied with his father and at the Dublin Society's School, alongside his brother William and sister Eliza.

In 1843, he spent a year in Rome, which he funded with the sale of his marble sculpture Andromeda.

He became master of the Royal Dublin Society modelling school in 1852, succeeding from Constantine Panormo.

[2] Some of his more famous works include the figures of Divinity, Law, Medicine and Science on the campanile in TCD, a relief at the base of the Wellington Monument and a monument to the bishop of Kildare, C. D. Lindsay, in Christ Church Cathedral.