On Tuesday, a secondary school secured a temporary High Court injunction preventing teacher Enoch Burke from attending the school or teaching any classes while he remains suspended from his position.
Enoch opposes addressing a student, who wishes to transition their gender, with the pronoun “they” and has come into conflict with the school principal.
Enoch Burke has not been sanctioned, and no finding has been made against him by the school.
The Burke family are evangelical Christians from Co Mayo known for their strident beliefs.
They have also become known for launching various long-running protests and campaigns against issues like marriage equality and the abortion referendum.
Family members have also been involved and, on occasion, involved themselves in several high-profile legal cases.
Matriarch Martina Burke, a qualified teacher of repute, has home-schooled all her 10 children. Several of the children have run into controversy in their professional lives, namely Ammi, Jemima and Enoch.
The remainder of the children, Keren, Elijah, Simeon, Kezia, Josiah, Isaac and Esther, have all, according to evidence in a legal case, enjoyed great academic success.
While Martina is known as “the driving force”, their father Sean, an electrician, is described by locals in Castlebar as “quiet” and “unassuming”.
Members of the Burke family and their posters have become a familiar sight in Market Square in Castlebar, particularly during the first two years of the pandemic.
They have protested about a range of issues; most recently Mayo University Hospital (MUH) has been their focus. Previously they protested against the Castlebar Gay Pride parade and canvassed heavily against gay marriage.
During the abortion referendum, they took up a regular post outside then Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s constituency office.
Such was the vitriol of their protests against MUH that one staff member told the Irish Independent she was “terrified” of them. “I used to get a sick feeling in my stomach when I saw them,” she said.A source who has had dealings with several siblings in a court case described their behaviour as “outrageous” and “ridiculous”. “Nothing would entice me to have any dealings with them ever again,” he said.
The founder of Burke Christian School in Castlebar, Martina Burke, is a fiercely determined woman who according to one local representative in Castlebar “fights like a dog” for her beliefs cemented in the Bible.
When contacted by the Irish Independent, the same representative said he recalled contact with him previously about the Burkes. “If you are going to call me every time they get into scrapes, we are going to get to know each other very well,” he mused.
In 2020, Martina Burke claimed during a court case her son Isaac took against NUIG to have educated “hundreds” of children over the past three decades. The Irish Independent has been unable to track down anyone who attended Burke Christian School full time, but many Mayo students have attended for grinds.
Last year in the High Court, Elijah Burke successfully challenged Education Minister Norma Foley’s refusal to grant him calculated grades as his mother, who taught him, would be awarding his grades.
The court heard eight of Elijah’s siblings had averaged 520 points in the Leaving Cert, and all obtained first-class honours degrees.
Mrs Burke’s behaviour made headlines last April Fool’s Day when her solicitor daughter Ammi Burke’s unfair dismissal case was thrown out by the Workplace Relations Commission amid chaotic scenes. Martina Burke repeatedly interrupted and “berated” the adjudicator.
Following at least five warnings and suspensions, the appeal was thrown out due to Mrs Burke’s obstructive behaviour.
During the hearing, Ammi Burke had demanded that senior counsel for the defence withdraw his remark that the Burke family was like a “travelling circus”, calling it “highly defamatory”.
“I object... How dare you call me and my mother a ‘travelling circus?” she said. “My family is held in very high regard in the local community in Castlebar, Co Mayo.
"My mother is a qualified teacher and has taught for over 30 years. It is the height of insult and a defamatory comment.”
Over the years, Martina Burke has placed advertisements in local newspapers in Mayo. Initially she sold religious books, but in recent years she has taken out full-page advertorials for her school.
In August 2018, Mrs Burke criticised the introduction of LGBT+ training for school principals. She described it as an “amoral, permissive framework” that would “stigmatise modesty and inhibitions”.
Other members of the Burke family have risen to prominence in recent years.
Journalism graduate Jemima Burke came to public awareness when her
intemperate questioning of chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan at a
Nphet press conference went viral.
Jemima gained access to the press conference by purporting to be a journalist with The Western News, a Galway-based newspaper that ceased publication in 1926.
Jemima, her brother Josiah and Martina Burke had to be removed forcibly by gardaí from a child inquest after causing huge distress to the bereaved family while making unfounded claims about the girl’s hospital care.
In November 2021, four of the Burke siblings lost a legal case against NUI Galway over a decision to bar them for life from membership of college societies.
Isaac, Kezia, Ammi and Enoch Burke, all members of the Christian Union Society (CUS) in 2014, alleged discrimination based on their religion. However, the college maintained the ban had nothing to do with religion.
The court heard the Burkes distributed flyers against gay marriage which implicitly connected gay marriage to paedophilia and incest. Some fellow students had complained about the leaflets and flyers.
Judge Raymond Groarke found many procedural flaws in the University Societies Co-ordinating Group’s handling of the case. However, he found “serious aggravating circumstances”, including the failure of the Burkes to co-operate with the investigation, their efforts to hinder it and their failure to give a truthful account of matters. He also found that accounts had been fabricated and CUS funds had been misused.
Esther Burke followed her mother into teaching and worked in a secondary school in Mayo for many years. She is highly regarded for her warmth and excellent teaching skills.