Born sometime about 1800 in the townland of Bresk, parish of Kiltullagh, four miles east of Athenry town, Burke was educated at the nearby Dominican College at Esker.
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa wrote that as of 1853, "He teaches in the [Roman Catholic] Orphan Asylum in Brooklyn .. is both a scholar and poet, and composes in the Irish language".
According to Mary Burke, The hurricane-like storm of 1839 arrived suddenly after a strangely calm day, plunging towns into immediate darkness, which magnified the terror.
Author Peter Carr notes that eddying winds caused the contents of houses to dance in the air and the din forced those huddled together to sign in order to communicate.
Thousands hastily abandoned badly built and suddenly roofless houses, innumerable farm animals perished, and the Shannon flooded vast areas of the surrounding countryside.