'You are a disgusting disgrace' - Enoch Burke's family hurls insults at Roderic O'Gorman in Galway
The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth was leaving a public referendum event when he was ambushed by members of the family
The family of former teacher Enoch Burke has called the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth "disgraceful" following a speaking event in Galway yesterday (February 21).
Minister Roderic O'Gorman was leaving a public referendum event at the University of Galway when he was ambushed by members of the family, with video of the exchange posted on X (formerly Twitter) yesterday evening.
In the clip, a woman believed to be Burke's mother, Martina, can be heard saying: "Enoch Burke is in Mountjoy Prison. What about equality? Is there equality for Enoch Burke? For his religious belief?
"You're a disgrace, you're a disgrace. Have you any respect?
"You'll stand before God. Enoch Burke in prison because he won't call a man a woman. What a disgrace to our nation."
Another woman can be heard echoing the questions, and at one point stated: "You are a disgusting disgrace."
She can also be heard stating: "[Enoch] won't accept transgenderism, Roderic. That is your agenda. Have you anything to say? Have you anything to say? Two hundred and seventy four days in Mountjoy Prison. Shame upon you."
Enoch Burke was jailed last year over his refusal to comply with a permanent injunction to stay away from Wilson's Hospital School in Co Westmeath.
The former teacher came to prominence due to his stance on transgenderism and his refusal to call a student by a preferred pronoun.
He can be released from prison at any time by purging his contempt.
Martina Burke, who spoke directly to the camera after Minister O'Gorman's exit, said, "I asked Roderic tonight had he anything to say about Enoch Burke, the young school teacher now almost three hundred days languishing in Mountjoy. Roderic is tight-lipped, he has absolutely nothing to say."
According to her, Minister O'Gorman is "not interested in equality, he's only interested in pushing an agenda".
She said, "There is no equality for Enoch Burke. When I ask [the minister] that he sneers, there is no equality for a Christian. There is a disdain, there is a hatred.
"We asked Roderic tonight and we didn't get a whiff, a peep out of him. He was taken into his car and whisked away. It's a shame and it's a disgrace that we the parents of Ireland have this man, we tolerate this man as Minister for Children. It's an absolute disgrace."
Burke's mother also criticised the minister for encouraging people to vote to "remove the word mother" from the Irish Constitution.
The upcoming referendums on family and care will take place on March 8 this year.