[1] A farmer and soldier prior to entering politics, Quirke contested the normally safely conservative federal seat of Wakefield in a 1938 by-election as an independent.
He finished a distant third on the primary vote, with 22.8 percent behind former Liberal and Country League Premier Richard Layton Butler and Labor challenger Sydney McHugh.
Quirke later won the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Stanley, serving from 1941 to 1948 as a Labor member.
When Stanley was abolished in the redistribution preceding the 1956 election, he contested and won the seat of Burra, defeating incumbent LCL member George Hawker.
[3] Quirke and the other independent in the legislature, Tom Stott held the balance of power at the 1962 election.