Gardaí remove Elijah Burke from Catherine Connolly event at the University of Galway after disturbance  

By Rachel Birch

Enoch Burke’s brother, Elijah, disrupted an event with Catherine Connolly at the University of Galway last night. The evening was suspended until he was escorted from the building by members of An Garda Síochána. 

The event, which was branded as a ‘conversation’ with the presidential nominee, was organised by the student-led Literary and Debate Society on campus. 

Elijah Burke, who is currently studying a postgraduate degree in law at the university, interrupted Catherine Connolly mid speech, to quiz her on the ongoing court proceedings against his brother: 

“I’m a law student here at the University of Galway, and tonight you’re here because you want to be President of Ireland, and as President, your role will be to represent the people of Ireland. 

“What do you have to say tonight about Enoch Burke, my brother, who was incarcerated for his beliefs on transgenderism?” he said.  

Mr. Burke’s outburst occurred 20 minutes into the event in question and was met with widescale commotion from the audience, who responded with heckles, effectively drowning out the rest of his protest. 

Mr. Burke was repeatedly asked by the organisers to sit down and wait until the end of the discussion, where he would be afforded an opportunity to pose his questions to Catherine Connolly alongside the rest of the public in attendance. 

However, Mr. Burke refused to adhere to these requests and was eventually forced to leave by gardaí and security personnel, which resulted in whoops and applause from the approximately 350 strong crowd in attendance. 

He was joined by his older sister, Aimee Burke, who filmed the outburst, and another unnamed woman, who rose from the front row after both the Burkes were removed from the lecture theatre to inquire about their expulsion. 

Mr. Burke, who failed in his bid to contest last year’s Student Union presidential election, was elected by a 60% share to represent his fellow law students on the student council this year. 

According to one member of the Literary and Debate Society, Cathal MacCuarta, who spoke to Pulse after the discussion, the Burkes had reportedly contacted the society prior to the event to notify them of their planned attendance. 

“We knew something like this was going to happen, but we were still very annoyed when it transpired,” Mr. MacCuarta said. 

The Literary and Debate society confirmed these details in an official statement sent to Galway Pulse:  

“We were aware of the potential for Mr. Burke to appear due to an email he sent us on the day of this event.  

“In this email he objected to the way the event was being organised, and we responded by explaining that our reason for this structure was one of timing and logistics.  

“We drew our questions from responses we got from the student body, and having our interviewer aware of questions beforehand allowed us to keep the event moving smoothly. He did not respond to us afterwards.  

“However, before the event, we decided that if he should attempt to interrupt the event, we would tell him he’s allowed to ask one question at the end. This plan was agreed on with the Connolly campaign staff. 

“During the interruption, we attempted to explain this to Mr. Burke, who did not listen, and he was therefore escorted out as to prevent any further interruption.” 

The statement confirmed that the society was “nonpartisan” and that “Catherine Connolly was in no way shielded from questioning”. 

Mr. MacCuarta also told Galway Pulse that all three presidential nominees were invited to attend the event, which was originally billed as a debate. 

While Catherine Connolly’s camp confirmed their attendance back in early September, Jim Gavin’s campaign organisers reportedly only declined the invitation on the eve of the event. 

Heather Humphreys team did not respond positively or negatively to the invitation, despite repeated and varied attempts by the society to contact her. 

“We have never gotten anything back from the Humphreys campaign, ever. 

“I believe that the other two candidates are not showing up for students,” Mr. MacCuarta asserted.