Thomas Hilary Burbage was baptised on 4 March 1879 in Borrisokane, Co. Tipperary. He was the son of James Burbage and Isabella Dunne. His father was an ex-RIC Head Constable from County Longford but when he retired from the R.I.C. and settled in Portarlington and is recorded as a grocer in Main Street in 1894 and 1901. They remained there until their deaths inthe early 1920s/1930s respectively and are buried in the New Cemetery in Portarlington. Thomas received his early education in the Portarlington Christian Brothers
School and was educated in Carlow from 1896 to 1897, in Maynooth from 1897 to 1904 and was ordained in St. Patrick’s College, Carlow in 1904 for the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. Father Burbage was devoted to duty, both religious and political. He was reported to be a noted speaker and writer, a charismatic and staunch republican, a prominent member of Sinn Féin and played an active role in politics. He did not confine his energy to the build up of the party but also expressed a genuine desire for the revival of the Irish language and was a noted Gaelic Leaguer in the county.
Father Burbage was a curate firstly in Carlow in his early life, and later lived in Geashill, County Ofaly, from September 1916 to June 1925. During one such speech at Philipstown (now Daingean), near Geashill, in August 1917, he made a strong attack on British cabinet ministers, comparing them to ‘Satan in furthering their own interests’ before going on the advise his listeners to ‘follow the rebels of Easter week even to death if you are true Irishmen’. Later in October, part of his speech at a meeting in Killoughy was also deleted from the also deleted from the press reports while the police again took note of his comments concerning their alleged strong arm tactics used on the occasion of the arrests of the county’s leading Sinn Féin activist, T.M. Russell, during March 1918, when Burbage announced that ‘it was clear to all the world that all tyranny did not cease when the Czar of Russia was driven from his throne’. These and similar sentiments by Fr Burbage earned him the respect of the country’s leading republicans and in November 1917, along with Fr Bergin, P.P., Philipstown, both were elected Vice President of the north King’s county Sinn Féin Executive.
While he was stationed in Geashill, Burbage became deeply associated with the republican movement in Offaly. During this period he claimed he found a British officer attempting to ‘plant a revolver in a bag upstairs in his house’. It was also alleged he was freed on by uniformed men from a military motor lorry, while he was returning from Tullamore to Geashill. At Curragh Hill, near the village of Geashill, he met three motor lorries containing armed soldiers. When the last one had passed him, at a range of thirty yards, Fr Burbage stated that a number of shots were freed at him. ‘I was much startled’ he told a reporter, ‘and I thought I was hit when I heard the bang’. He claimed that his residence was raided on several occasions and after one search in 1920, he was arrested. He was first taken to the Curragh and from there to Arbour Hill. In January 1920 Burbage was sent to Ballykinlar Internment Camp, Co. Down. Ill-treatment at the camp led to struggles and a tribunal headed by Fr Burbage later investigated the atrocities. It was reported that the presence of the priest at the camp proved to be a big consolation to the prisoners and he often administered Holy Communion to as many as 600 prisoners in a morning .On Easter Sunday 1922, ‘to mark the occasion of his release from Ballykinlar Internment Camp’, he was presented with an address from the bishop and priests of the diocese, paying tribute to the manner in which his ‘character and judgement contributed to make these (Republican) courts represented and obeyed’ and celebrating his work for the Irish language, the revival of the Irish industries and a rebirth of a spirit of self-reliance in the people. The people of his parish also presented him with ‘a beautiful two-seater Morris Cowley motorcar as a token of their esteem.
Fr. Burbage was appointed parish priest of Tinryland, near county Carlow in 1936. Five years later he was appointed to Mountmellick, and was Diocesan Consulter in Kildare and Leighlin, and was parish priest of Mountmellick for twenty-six years. He continued his work amongst the people over his years in Mountmellick and raised over one hundred thousand pounds to extend St. Joseph’s Church. Father Burbage also helped raised monies to build the new cinema, which opened in April 1951.When on 1 July 1954, he celebrated his golden jubilee Mass, the then President, Sean T. O’Ceallaigh, attended and the Taoiseach, Mr de Valera, was represented and sent a message of congratulations. Father Burbage died on 8 January 1966 and is buried in the Church grounds in Mountmellick. It was reported that President de Valera was amongst the huge attendance at the funeral.