{"id":130852,"date":"2025-10-18T21:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T21:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/130852\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T21:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T21:18:08","slug":"enoch-burke-confronts-catherine-connolly-as-sean-gallagher-backs-heather-humphreys-campaign-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/130852\/","title":{"rendered":"Enoch Burke confronts Catherine Connolly as Se\u00e1n Gallagher backs Heather Humphreys campaign \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enoch Burke confronted independent presidential candidate Catherine Connolly<\/a> during a canvass in Limerick<\/a> city on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly had just begun an address to a gathering of Palestinian solidarity activists on Bedford Row when she was interrupted by Mr Burke.<\/p>\n

The schoolteacher claims he has been unlawfully dismissed from Wilson\u2019s Hospital school in Co Westmeath<\/a>. He has been imprisoned and incurred fines of over \u20ac225,000 for continuing to turn up at the school in breach of court orders.<\/p>\n

He says his constitutional and religious rights have been breached by the school because he objected to using \u201cthey\/them\u201d with reference to a transgender student and to use their new name.<\/p>\n

Flanked by his mother, Martina Burke, he told Ms Connolly: \u201cMy life has been turned upside down because my religious beliefs are being taken away from me. I am a victim because of your gender ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, above the noise of the crowd: \u201cIn your Ireland, I would be pushed, I would be shut outside the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need our religious beliefs in this country, we need our religious freedoms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly replied \u201cI\u2019ve heard you\u201d a number of times.<\/p>\n

The crowd chanted \u201cfree Palestine<\/a>\u201d, and \u201cshame on you\u201d, during the encounter, which lasted around a minute and a half before Mr Burke was led away. Ms Connolly then continued her address to applause.<\/p>\n

Later, on social media platform X, Mr Burke urged people not to spoil their vote in next Friday\u2019s presidential election<\/a>. He told people to vote for Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys<\/a> in order to prevent Ms Connolly becoming president.<\/p>\n

Mr Burke\u2019s younger brother Elijah was earlier this month removed from an event featuring Ms Connolly at the University of Galway<\/a> after he attempted to question the presidential candidate from the floor about Enoch Burke.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ms Humphreys received the public endorsement of her \u201cgood friend\u201d, businessman and twice presidential candidate Se\u00e1n Gallagher<\/a>, at a canvass at the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre in Dublin on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Mr Gallagher called on \u201cmy friends in Fianna F\u00e1il and indeed Miche\u00e1l Martin and the senior Fianna F\u00e1il leadership, to . . . come out and support their former ministerial colleague and coalition partner, who shares the same values and policies”.<\/p>\n

Mr Gallagher ran for the \u00c1ras in both 2011 and 2018. He finished second in his first campaign, having looked as though he would win days out from polling. <\/p>\n

\"PresidentialPresidential candidate Heather Humphreys and T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris outside Croke Park on Saturday before the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Munster. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cElections have consequences and none more so than Ireland\u2019s reputation,\u201d he added. \u201cI think it takes decades to build a reputation, but only minutes to destroy one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys said she was \u201cabsolutely delighted\u201d to get Mr Gallagher\u2019s endorsement, saying: \u201cHe has walked this path and he knows. He understands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, an Irish Times-Ipsos B&A poll found that Ms Connolly commands almost double the support of Ms Humphreys<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In Blanchardstown, Ms Humphreys continued to present herself as a \u201ccentre, middle ground, common sense\u201d alternative, repeating that the only poll of significance \u201cis the one next Friday\u201d. <\/p>\n

On Saturday, afternoon T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris joined his party\u2019s candidate outside Croke Park ahead of Leinster and Munster\u2019s United Rugby Championship clash. Speaking to the Irish Times, he referenced Mr Gallagher\u2019s 2011 campaign as cause for optimism, despite the Irish Times\/Ipsos B&A opinion poll demonstrating an 18-point lead for Ms Connolly. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt this stage, when Michael D Higgins was running for president, everybody had written him off,\u201d Mr Harris said. \u201cAnd everyone had decided the name of the president was going to be someone who never went on to be president. So, this is very much all to play for.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn one level, Se\u00e1n Gallagher is a reminder that an election is never over until it\u2019s over. And I know he\u2019d be the first to say that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enoch Burke confronted independent presidential candidate Catherine Connolly during a canvass in Limerick city on Saturday. Ms Connolly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,7335,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-130852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-irish-politics","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}