Ciaran Bourke was a founder of the Dubliners. He came from a wealthy family who hired an Irish nurse from the countryside. She taught him Gaelic (Gaeilge) and appreciation of traditional music and jigs. Inspired by her, Ciaran, as an adult, gathered a band of like-minded Irish musicians and taught them the same, thereby keeping the traditional music alive.
RTE, Ireland’s National Public Service Media, has some more on this for his tribute in their archives.
Food, Guinness and Saveur
And if you want to have a traditional Irish meal to enjoy it with see over here on the Saveur (a great food magazine now defunct) site with a pint of Dublin’s Guinness to wash it down.
The Chart
Ciaran was born on February 18, 1935 in Dublin, Ireland. Little is known about his childhood, other than what I have already mentioned, and nothing about his parents. True to expectations, Ciaran’s chart has Aries at the midheaven showing his resolve to create something unique: Irish popular music.
His rising sign , Leo 17, the Sabian symbol “There is no service in the church but the sounds of a rehearsal choir singing permeate the space.” Marc Edmund Jones writes this highlights Bourke’s ability to harmonize the various elements of the band into a whole that was also “sustaining” (both spiritual and monetarily profitable).
Bourke’s planetary pattern is a Locomotive anchored by a Grand Trine in Water (Venus in her exaltation of Neptune, Pluto in Cancer in the twelfth and Jupiter in Scorpio in the fourth house of home land and fathers). Uranus, the ruler of his Sun sign, is at the top of his chart at the midheaven and trined to his Moon in the first house, showing his desire to create something unique because of what had so impressed him when he was young.
He could do this because his Moon, in the first house, is square his Jupiter in the fourth — his family’s money though the square tells us his family was not happy with his desire to be a musician and that caused some strife between them because they felt it would go nowhere and be a money pit (Jupiter square Mercury in the seventh).
Once focused though, his Locomotive pattern urged him on, and the arguments and strife from this decision made him committed to its course (Mars in Libra in the third). He has neither a Line of Vitality, nor Efficiency. His Line of Motivation is squared, showing the many hurdles he had to overcome, and his lack of Social Significance, shows his independent resolve in doing so.
His Sun in the seventh house, and in its detriment, tells us gathering his band and becoming a leader was not easy as he would have expected with the Grand Trine dominating his chart. This was because many resented his privileged background and distrusted him. It was the natural strength Venus’s exaltation in Pisces that won them, and his audience, to his side as that depicts his natural ability with the tin whistle and flair creating melodic tunes.
Ciaran Bourke died in his native Dublin at age 48, after a lengthy illness stemming from a ruptured brain aneurysm in 1974. His wife Jeannie survived him, as did their six daughters,-Ciara, Laoighse, Síobhra, Rathfíonna, Saoirse and Seodhna and a loyal band that continues his work.
