{"id":320705,"date":"2025-08-05T20:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T20:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/320705\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T20:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T20:31:10","slug":"members-of-burke-family-confront-northern-ireland-education-head-in-car-park-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/320705\/","title":{"rendered":"Members of Burke family confront Northern Ireland education head in car park \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the Burke family have confronted the head of the North\u2019s Education Authority outside a church in Co Antrim<\/a>, accusing him of \u201cpromoting transgenderism\u201d and \u201csodomy\u201d. <\/p>\n

A video posted on social media by Enoch Burke<\/a> showed his brother Josiah and mother Martina following Mervyn Storey around the car park of Hebron Free Presbyterian Church in Ballymoney as he attempts to gain entry to the building. <\/p>\n

Referring to the EA\u2019s guidelines for supporting transgender pupils, they claim he is \u201cenforcing transgenderism in Northern Ireland schools\u201d and \u201cthreatening teachers\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mr Storey, a former DUP Assembly member and Stormont minister, says in the footage \u201cplease, thank you\u201d and \u201ccan you move out of my way?\u201d, and later asks them \u201ccan you stop?\u201d. <\/p>\n

The Burkes also claim to have been assaulted as they attempted to enter the building, which is rejected by church members. <\/p>\n

The Police Service of Northern Ireland<\/a> (PSNI) said it was \u201caware of a video being circulated online and inquiries are being conducted in relation to the matter\u201d <\/p>\n

The Education Authority said \u201cwe have no comment\u201d. <\/p>\n

Enoch Burke, from Castlebar, Co Mayo, has been involved in a long-running legal battle over his dismissal from his teaching job at Wilson\u2019s Hospital School in Co Westmeath following a public confrontation with its principal after he refused to call a child \u201cthey\u201d rather than \u201che\u201d.<\/p>\n

He has argued that transgenderism is against his Christian religious beliefs and that requiring him to use such terminology was unconstitutional and contrary to the school\u2019s Church of Ireland ethos. He spent more than 500 days in prison for repeatedly disobeying High Court orders not to attend the premises. <\/p>\n

Last month he won an appeal<\/a> over the composition of a disciplinary panel set up to hear his appeal against his dismissal.<\/p>\n

Members of his family have also been involved in protests over gender identity issues at high-profile events and outside Irish courts. <\/p>\n

In March, Martina Burke and her children Isaac and Ammi were removed by police from the Ireland Funds gala dinner<\/a> in Washington after they interrupted proceedings in protest at Enoch\u2019s imprisonment. <\/p>\n

The first set of detailed guidelines for supporting transgender pupils in Northern Ireland were published by the Education Authority in 2019. <\/p>\n

The advisory document states transgender people \u201chave a gender identity which differs from that of their (assigned) birth sex\u201d and includes advice on issues such as name and pronoun changes, uniforms and toilets and changing rooms. <\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the UK supreme court ruled that the definition of a woman was defined by biological sex. <\/p>\n

Following that judgment, the North\u2019s Minister for Education, the DUP MLA Paul Givan, said its implications were being considered to ensure compliance \u201cwith the legal definition of sex\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the Burke family have confronted the head of the North\u2019s Education Authority outside a church in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[93993,116199,1144,64806,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-320705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-dup-links","9":"tag-enoch-burke","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-paul-givan","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114978061266720081","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}