Although less well known today, Micheál de Búrca trained at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Hibernian Academy. He was predominantly a painter of the Irish landscape and had a wonderful feeling for evoking the Irish climate, seen in the present rural view as sunlight breaks through the clouds, painted with rich, gestural brushwork.
de Búrca became a significant figure for education in the arts from his appointment as art inspector for the department of Education in 1940. In 1942 he was appointed Acting Director of the National College of Art, where he re-established the practice of stained glass, metalwork and weaving at the college. In 1970, he became senior art inspector of the National College of Art.