Edmund Burke , a philosopher in Parliament
Written by Denis Johnston
Produced by James Mageean
Seldom has the House of Commons known so detached a thinker, so disinterested a politician, so logical an advocate of general princples as Edmund Burke (1727-1797). All his life he resisted arbitrary government, whether the British conquerors of India or the Crown itself were the object of his attack. He supported the struggle of the American colonists against the Mother Country and advocated reform and Catholic emancipation for his own native land. Yet he was a bitter enemy to what he regarded as the anarchic theories behind the French Revolution and predicted much that was to follow therefrom.
This radio biography reviews the life and viewpoint of this great Irishman, who contributed so much to the growth of the British Constitution.