Thomas Paul Burgess
Thomas Paul Burgess was born in Shankill Road, Belfast Northern Ireland.
He is a published academic, novelist and song-writer / musician with his band Ruefrex.
Much of his song writing, poetry, prose writing and academic publication draw on his interest in the Loyalist / Protestant working class community of Belfast and their sense of cultural identity.
He worked in Short Brothers Aircraft manufacturers before leaving to pursue a BA in English Literature at the University of Ulster, under the tutelage of the late Poet, James Simmons. He later attended Oxford University studying Ethics & Moral Education and University College Cork, where he was awarded a PhD for research into social policy developments in the area of conflict resolution.
He has spent periods, variously as schoolteacher; Community Relations Officer in local government in Northern Ireland; and researcher for The Opsahl Commission of Inquiry into political progress in the Province.
As a songwriter and performer with his band, Ruefrex, he achieved commercial and critical success with the release of seven singles and three albums. Most notable amongst these was the scathing commentary on American funding for Irish Republican violence, ‘The Wild Colonial Boy’ which entered the UK top thirty. The British music press, comparing his work to that of Yukio Mishima, described his writing as, “…a line of poetry written in a splash of blood.” And described Ruefrex as “…the most important band in Britain” at the time.
The band played a prominent role in cross-community, anti-sectarian ventures and actively lobbied and raised funds for the (religiously) Integrated Education Movement in Northern Ireland.
His first novel, ‘White Church, Black Mountain’ (Matador ISBN 9781784621612) is a political thriller, dealing with the emerging ‘post-conflict’ society of Northern Ireland and exploring the legacy of ‘the troubles’ and how its residue impacts on those who seek to build a personal and communal future in its aftermath.
His second novel, ‘Through Hollow Lands’ (In production) is a dark supernatural thriller based loosely on Dante’s ‘Inferno’ and follows survivors of the 9/11 attacks, through the seeming purgatory of Las Vegas.
He has published a number of academic works dealing with aspects of Education (‘A Crisis of Conscience: - moral ambivalence and education in Northern Ireland’ ISBN 1 85628420 4) Social Policy (‘The Reconciliation Industry: - community relations, community identity & social policy in Northern Ireland.’ ISBN 0 7734 70441) and Cultural Identity (‘The Contested Identities of Ulster Protestants’ ISBN 9 78113745393 8) as well as a number of treatises on Youth participation in European civil society.
He lives in Cork, Ireland, where he is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Youth & Community Studies at The School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork.