Ireland’s “Pronoun Martyr” Desperately Needs a Trump Card to Win
Evangelical Christian who spent 500 days in prison for holding to biblical truth has now lost his livelihood
Medals are awarded to soldiers for acts of bravery during war. Christians are perpetually at war with diabolical forces. St. Paul calls these forces “principalities and powers, rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Enoch Burke is a young Irishman who deserves a Victoria Cross for naming, unmasking, and engaging the principalities currently at work in the government of once-Catholic Ireland. The VC was the first British medal to be created for bravery. It is awarded in exceptional circumstances for extreme bravery in the presence of the enemy.
Burke, who until 2022 was a teacher at a school run by the Church of Ireland, has been jailed three times for a total of 500 days because he refused to refer to a gender-confused student as “they/them.”
When school administrators suspended him in order to teach him a lesson, Burke continued to show up for work until they got a court order barring him from the premises – and when he continued to protest by violating that as well, he was repeatedly arrested.
Worse, the bishops of the Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church have teamed up with the Deep State, repeatedly snubbing Burke’s appeals for help.
This week, Ireland’s High Court appointed a receiver to collect fines of €80,000 from Burke’s salary and to freeze his bank account.
Many Europeans joined Burke and his family in the hopes that President Donald Trump or Vice President J.D. Vance would take up Burke’s cause when Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin visited the White House for the St. Patrick Day’s celebrations earlier this week. But those hopes so far have been disappointed.
Burke’s Countercultural Family
Burke comes by his recalcitrance honestly: He comes from a well-known evangelical family in County Mayo, where he was raised alongside nine brothers and sisters (Ammi, Elijah, Enoch, Esther, Isaac, Jemima, Josiah, Keren, Kezia, and Simeon). They, along with their parents (Sean and Martina) have devoted their lives to fighting for biblical truth, especially against the LGBT agenda.
In 2008, the Burke family protested outside of Dáil Éireann (Ireland’s parliament) with placards quoting Leviticus 18:22: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind.” In 2017, 2018 and 2019, they protested at the annual gay pride parade in their hometown, Castlebar. During Ireland’s 2015 referendum on same-sex marriage, the family campaigned for a “no” vote.
After his initial arrest at the school in September 2022, Burke told the court he “would rather stay in prison every hour of every day for the next 100 years” than comply with the order, maintaining that he would “only obey God,” and “not obey man.” He was eventually released that December, after the school had closed for the Christmas holidays. He continued to engage in civil disobedience by returning to the school, and in January 2023, the court imposed a fine of €700 every day he did so.
That August, Burke returned for the new academic year, standing in a corridor to continue his protest. In September 2023, a court ordered him to confirm he would obey the restraining order, or return to jail.
So he returned to jail for the second time.
Burke was released in June 2024 as the summer break began, but he still refused to obey the court order. Last August, he was seen on the school grounds and in a building on the school premises. Consequently, he was jailed for a third time in September.
Ireland’s High Court finally ordered Burke’s release from prison last December , but the judge warned Burke he would be fined €1,400 every day he refused to stay away from the school.
The judge also ordered garnished Burke’s salary to pay the accumulated fines of €193,000 and said that the cost of keeping Burke in prison was now €84,000 a year (€1,600 a week).
Burke’s mother and brother have repeatedly confronted both Catholic and Anglican bishops and asked them to make clear their stand on compelled speech using transgender pronouns, to no avail.
Deep Church and Deep State Collusion
In December 2024, Martina and Josiah Burke accosted Bishop Martin Hayes, who oversees the Catholic prison chaplaincy. “Have you nothing to say, Bishop?” Mrs. Burke asked. Hayes replied: “I have nothing to say to you, because I do not like the manner you have approached me.”
When Burke’s family asked him to respond, the Archbishop of Armagh, John McDowell, immediately suspended the sitting of the Church of Ireland Synod last May.
Last October, Martina confronted Archbishop Eamon Martin, the head of Ireland’s Catholic Church, reminding him of his role as the successor of the apostles. He sheepishly squirmed and engaged in a 10-minute conversation but did not make the slightest commitment to defend the biblical position on gender.
“Transgender ideology is inherently anti-Christian and leaves young people tragically and irreversibly harmed. It shouldn’t be difficult for a bishop to acknowledge this,” Burke tweeted.
Appealing to Trump
The Burke family has now turned to Trump and Vance. While Trump shamed Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin over tariffs when he hosted him for the St. Patrick Day celebrations at the White House, neither Trump nor Vance brought up the issue of Burke’s incarceration.
Burke’s mother and two of his siblings managed to draw the attention of the press by protesting at the Ireland Funds Gala that Martin attended in Washington, D.C. on St. Patrick’s Day. They were forcibly removed.
The Burkes have now issued a stark message:
We came to Washington DC with a simple message: America needs to know the truth about Ireland. The truth that Irish people live in fear in their own country. That the Irish Courts and Government work hand in hand to pursue anyone who refuses to bow the knee to transgenderism. That LGBTQ+ ideology is forced on every child in every school.
The family of the “pronoun martyr” addressed the bishops’ abysmal failure:
During this week Archbishop John McDowell had a meeting in an office in Capitol Hill with Archbishop Eamon Martin, the Catholic Primate of All Ireland. Eamon Martin has turned a blind eye to the ongoing indoctrination of Irish schoolchildren with transgender ideology and every other form of sexual perversion.
The two Archbishops met to discuss the subject of Catholic and Protestant unity. These men can have all the unity they want, but Christ is outside of this unity. Christ made it abundantly clear: God made them male and female.
Dr. Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.
ENOCH BURKE TIMELINE
- May 2021 – Burke receives an email informing staff at Wilson’s Hospital School of a transgender student’s new pronouns. He does not use them.
- August 2021 – Burke is placed on paid leave pending an internal investigation
- September 2021 – Burke arrives for work and is asked to leave. The court secures a court order.
- August 2022 – The school sues Burke for failing to comply with the court order.
- September 2022 – Burke is jailed for the first time and serves 100 days at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.
- December 2022 – Burke is released from prison after his first sentence.
- January 2023 – Burke is officially fired.;
High Court rules he must pay €700 a day if he continues going to the school.
- September 2023 – Burke is jailed a second time for refusing to comply with the High Court order.
- June 2024 – Burke is released from Mountjoy Prison from his second sentence and asked to respect the school’s court order.
- September 2024 – Burke is jailed for the third time after going to the school with his family.
- December 2024 – Burke is released for the third time and ordered to pay accumulated fines of €193,000.