Richard Burke, 8th Earl of Clanricarde PC (Ire) (English: /klænˈrɪkɑːrd/ klan-RIK-ard; died 1709); styled Lord Dunkellin (/dʌnˈkɛlɪn/ dun-KEL-in) until 1687; was an Irish peer who served as Custos Rotulorum of Galway.

Richard was the elder son of William Burke, 7th Earl of Clanricarde and appears to have been the first of the family to conform (to the Protestant faith), as Charles II wrote to his father congratulating him on "being thoroughly instructed in the protestant religion as it stands established, having forsaken that of Rome which hath always given jealousies to the crown". He was made Baron Dunkellin in 1680.^[1]

Clanricarde was appointed Governor and Custos Rotulorum of County Galway, and commanded a regiment of infantry during the Williamite War in Ireland. He surrendered the town of Galway in July 1690. His younger brother, Ulick, commanded a regiment of foot at the Battle of Aughrim where he was killed, aged twenty-two. Richard was outlawed on 11 May 1691. His sister Honora was married to the Jacobite leader Patrick Sarsfield.^[2][1]

Richard married three times. Firstly, he married Elizabeth Bagnall. They had a daughter:

• Lady Dorothy Bourke. She was educated at Priest's School, Chelsea, where she performed in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.^[3] She married Alexander Pendarves^[4]

Secondly, he married Anne Cheke, Dowager Countess of Warwick, the daughter of Sir Thomas Cheke (d.1659), and widow of Richard Rogers and Robert Rich, 3rd Earl of Warwick (1611-59).^[5] Their daughter was:

• Lady Mary Bourke (d.1714)

Thirdly, he married Bridget Dillon, daughter of Henry, 8th Viscount Dillon.

Without a male heir, Richard was succeeded, as Earl, by his brother John.^[6]

Country	Date	Appointment	Ribbon	Post-nominals
United Kingdom	1688	Member of the Privy Council of Ireland		PC (Ire)

Coat of arms of Richard Burke, 8th Earl of Clanricarde

Crest A Cat-a-Mountain sejant guardant proper, collared and chained Or. Escutcheon Or, a cross gules in the first quarter a lion rampant sable. Supporters Two Cats-a-Mountain sejant guardant proper, collared and chained Or.[7][8] Motto UNG ROY, UNG FOY, UNG LOY (One king, one faith, one law)

• House of Burgh, an Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman dynasty founded in 1193

• Bourke, Eamonn (1995). Burke: People and Places. Whitegate and Castlebar: Ballinakilla Press and de Búrca Rare Books. ISBN 0-946130-10-8.
• Burke, John; Burke, Bernard (1844). Encyclopædia of Heraldry: Or General Armory of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Comprising a Registry of All Armorial Bearings from the Earliest to the Present Time, Including the Late Grants by the College of Arms. H. G. Bohn.
• Burke, Bernard (1884). The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; comprising a registry of armorial bearings from the earliest to the present time. University of California Libraries. London: Harrison & Sons.
• Cokayne, G. E. (1889). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom Extant, Extinct, or Dormant (1st ed.). London: George Bell & Sons.
• Croot, Patricia E C. "Social history: Education, private schools Pages 190-195 A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 12, Chelsea". British History Online. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
• Cunningham, Bernardette (1996), "From Warlords to Landlords: Political and Social Change in Galway, 1540–1640", in Moran, Gerard; Gillespie, Raymond (eds.), Galway History and Society: Interdisciplinary Essays on the History of an Irish County, The Irish County History & Society Series, Dublin: Geography Publications, pp. 97–130
• Lodge, John. The Peerage of Ireland. Vol. 1.
• MacMahon, Michael (1983). Portumna Castle and its Lords. Portumna: Shannon Books. ISBN 0-9538667-0-X.