Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Enoch Burke’s Mayo family at centre of numerous ‘newsworthy’ events

 Burke to remain in Mountjoy for at least another week

Enoch Burke from Castlebar, Co Mayo is of one of ten siblings, all named after religious figures from the Bible.

His siblings are Ammi; Elijah; Esther; Isaac; Jemima; Josiah; Keren; Kezia and Simeon.

His father Sean is an electrician while his mother Martina is a qualified teacher who home-schooled all ten of her children.

She runs the Burke Christian School.

The family have found themselves at the centre of a number of ‘newsworthy’ events in recent years.

Martina, Josiah and Jemima were removed from Swinford courthouse in April of this year after they loudly protested a coroner’s verdict of natural causes in the case of the death of 17-year-old Sally Maz.

Also, in April, Ammi Burke’s claim for unfair dismissal against law firm Arthur Cox was rejected.

The Work Relations Committee threw out her claim after her summons request for additional witnesses and repeated interruptions by her mother prevented the hearing from proceeding for more than five hours on Friday.

Ms Burke also demanded that senior counsel for the defence withdraw his remark that the Burke family was like a “travelling circus” – calling it “highly defamatory”.

Last year, Enoch’s brother Elijah Burke successfully challenged Education Minister Norma Foley’s refusal to grant him calculated grade as his teacher, his mother, would have been the one to award him his grades.

In May of 2020, Jemima Burke, a journalism graduate, was asked to leave a Department of Health press conference after questioning former Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan on the circumstances of the death of Sally Maz.

She had gained access to the conference by claiming to be a journalist with The Western News – a Galway based newspaper that ceased publication in 1926.

In 2014, Enoch, Ammi, Isaac and Kezia Burke were banned for life from membership of societies at NUI Galway.

They claimed victimisation on religious grounds.

The University Society Co-ordination Group countered that the siblings had distributed leaflets using the college logo including ones against gay marriage that connected it to paedophilia and incest.

A court case held in November last year concluded with Judge Raymond Groake finding the sanction was within the rules and errors in procedure by the college did not constitute discrimination on religious grounds.