Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
Print of Burke after Reynolds, c.1767-1769, Aged 38-40. TCD MS 8402/20
Born at 12 Arran Quay, Dublin on 12 January 1729, Edmund Burke graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1748. As a student he founded what would later become the College Historical Society, the oldest student society in the world. It was here that he honed his legendary debating skills.
Burke entered Parliament in 1765 and quickly became a champion for political emancipation, concerning himself especially with affairs in his native Ireland. However after 1789, he directed his attention to the French Revolution and its immediate ramifications for political stability in England.
