Stephen McDermott

SEASON OF MISTS and mellow fruitfulness, when conkers fall in the crisp September air and Enoch Burke returns to the gates of Wilson’s Hospital School.

It’s been four years since Enoch Burke began his protest against his former employer, and though he has shown up at the school multiple times again this year, the coverage has been less reliable than it used to be.

The once-daily media updates about his appearance at the school are dead and gone, and now the world finds out about his presence in Multyfarnham from videos he shares on his account on X.

In one such clip shared this week, Enoch wasn’t even the star.

Instead, two security guards keeping him off the grounds supplied their own soundtrack to his remarks about ‘transgenderism’ with jovial chit-chat about baldness and the rain.

At this stage in 2022, 2023 and 2024, Enoch had already been jailed for breaching court orders to stay away from Wilson’s; this time last year, the school’s board of management had taken the matter back to the High Court.

This September, for now, the spectacle has almost entirely taken place on social media.

Away from the familiar scenes at the school gates and in the High Court, more of the Burke family have been appearing in my feed, campaigning on a wider range of subjects.

On Monday, Enoch’s account shared a clip of his older brother Isaac declaring the new draft Leaving Cert maths curriculum a “scandal”.

Days earlier, the brothers were filmed confronting people for raising rainbow flags in Mullingar.

Recent posts also feature messages from Isaac and his father Sean making allegations about a neighbour’s death in Mayo, their sister Esther featuring in two clips about a car collision in Castlebar, and mother Martina and sister Ammi appearing in another video about legal aid solicitors, prison officers and gardaí.

The family are no strangers to these kinds of causes, and Enoch’s legal battle with Wilson’s is far from their only animating grievance.

What has struck me while watching their accounts lately is how many different disputes now arrive through the same familiar faces.

At this stage, I recognise the cast before I even know what the argument is about.

It’s a period that’s followed legal issues for the Burkes.

Earlier this year, a disciplinary appeals panel upheld Enoch’s dismissal. Martina, Ammi and Isaac have also been barred from attending certain High Court proceedings concerning Enoch in person, although they can attend remotely.

Whatever explains their recent burst of activity, viewers now have a more varied menu of content from the Burke family.

Religious conviction and a desire for publicity can coexist: someone who believes they have an important message has an obvious reason to want it heard.

Nor does every complaint about a maths curriculum or a car collision need a religious explanation.

But their wider campaigning raises a question about how far attention travels: will someone drawn to Enoch’s dispute with Wilson’s take an interest in his relatives’ other causes?

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The range of material tells us more about the family’s determination to speak than the audience’s willingness to listen.

What makes me sceptical of online attention as a measure of persuasion is how agreement, amusement and curiosity all look like the same thing on X’s view-counter.

Anyone can watch a video featuring one of the Burkes because they support their cause, because they’re amused by the family, or because they’re curious.

But one view on X alone tells us very little about which of those people has turned up.

The Burkes can choose what they publish; they cannot dictate everyone else’s exegesis of it.

That distinction was unusually clear this week at the gates of Wilson’s Hospital School.

Enoch brought his usual argument, but the two security guards provided the content that people enjoyed.

He can keep returning as reliably as the falling leaves. He cannot be quite so sure what social media will make of his arrival.