Video footage has emerged of members of the Burke family disrupting the Church of Ireland Synod in Co Armagh at the weekend, saying that Enoch Burke was in Mountjoy prison for “upholding the ethos of a Church of Ireland school”.
In the video, Josiah Burke is seen unfolding a poster of his brother which reads: “Enoch Burke 354 days in prison”. The schoolteacher has now almost spent a year in jail.
All Ireland primate of the COI, John McDowell, and Bishop of Meath and Kildare Pat Storey were present, and were addressed in the protest by Mr Burke’s mother Martina and brother Josiah.
The PSNI confirmed officers attended “a report of a disturbance” but said no criminal offences had been detected.
The PSNI said that officers had attended the hotel after “a report of a disturbance”, but also said that they had not detected any criminal offences.
The Burke family said that they wanted the Synod to take action because Enoch Burke was in jail for supporting and upholding Christian beliefs which were supposed to form the ethos of the school.
A Church of Ireland spokesperson said: “Mrs Burke and members of her family entered the meeting of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland in Armagh.
“The business of the General Synod was suspended and resumed 45 minutes later to conclude the report that had been in progress at the time.”
Mr Burke is still being detained in Mountjoy Prison because he refuses to comply with court orders not to attend Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath after the school dismissed him over a row around transgenderism.
He is currently taking a defamation action against Mediahuis Ireland, the publishers of the Sunday Independent, which he says published an article defaming him in October 2022, whereby it was claimed he was annoying prisoners and had to be moved because he was in danger of being beaten.
He says the claim is untrue and that the article was published ‘maliciously and with recklessness’, and that the story, which he says, was “circulated to millions” then “triggered a storm of damaging posts” about him that still continues.
He pointed to one comment which said “imagine being locked up with Enoch Burke, you’d beg the warden for solitary confinement”.
The publisher denies defamation and will plead fair and reasonable publication on a matter of public interest.
Enoch Burke told the court his fellow inmates in Mountjoy Prison had offered him support when he was imprisoned after breaching an injunction following a row with the school where he was teaching over transgender issues. He said they told him to “keep the head up” and that “you should not be in here”.
Mr Burke said that when he was first brought to the prison, other inmates told him they agreed with him and that biscuits and popcorn had been left at his cell door.
Since his arrival, he said, the kindness, generosity and goodwill of prisoners never stopped, with his fellow prisoners giving him free haircuts. “I have never had a bad word said to me in Mountjoy and to this day have never had a hand laid on me. I have been treated with goodwill and respect because I have empathy for them,” he told the court.