AFTER confronting presidential frontrunner Catherine Connolly while canvassing in the city centre in Limerick at the weekend, former teacher Enoch Burke hit out that “his life has been turned upside down and his religious beliefs taken away”.
Mr Burke was suspended from his teacher role in 2022 after a row over Wilson’s Hospital School in County Westmeath’s request to use a transgender student’s chosen pronouns.
The debacle in the years since has spiralled into a long running legal battle, with the Castlebar native spending over 500 days in prison to date.
As Ms Connolly joined members of the Limerick branch of the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s weekly protests on Bedford Row last Saturday (October 18), she was set upon by Mr Burke and other members of his family, including his mother Martina Burke.
“I’m a victim because of your gender ideology and the people round about you here, Paul Murphy and your supporters – that’s your gender ideology,” Burke told Connolly at the Bedford Row demonstration.
“As president you should be maintaining the constitution and the laws, and you can’t say that Catherine. We need our religious beliefs in this country,” he added.
The large numbers gathered in the city centre for the weekly vigil in solidarity with the people of Gaza shouted “shame, shame, shame” as Mr Burke harangued the presidential hopeful.
Ms Connolly, who kept her composure throughout the incident, said she had “no difficulty listening to anyone with dignity and respect”.
“I’ve heard you,” she told Mr Burke.
Ms Connolly thanked the Limerick demonstrators who turn out every weekend in the city centre as one woman hollered back at her: “Anything to say about Enoch Burke, Catherine?”
Members of the crowd who tried to move the Burke family from the area were then met with shouts of “you’re assaulting me, I’m being assaulted, this is assault” before order was restored.
The heated episode was the second Limerick stop off on the presidential campaign trail so far, with Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys visiting a number of locations across the county in late September, including the Crescent Shopping Centre and a party rally at the Patrickswell Community Centre.
The presidential election will take place this Friday (October 24), with An Coimisiún Toghcháin (the Electoral Commission) confirming an electorate of 3,612,857 registered to vote.
Following Friday’s votes, Limerick’s ballots will be taken to the count centre at Adare’s Woodlands Hotel and Spa.
