![\"Archbishop](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/002541cd-614.jpg\"\/)
\nJohn McDowell is Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland for the Church of Ireland<\/p>\n
The Police Service of Northern Ireland is investigating an allegation of assault following an incident involving Enoch Burke and the Church of Ireland Primate.<\/p>\n
A complaint was made to police after Mr Burke turned up at the cathedral in Armagh yesterday.<\/p>\n
A social media video appears to show Enoch Burke remonstrating with the Reverend John McDowell.<\/p>\n
The church said the episode had unfolded in the grounds of the cathedral. Social media indicated it continued to the door of the archbishop’s residence.<\/p>\n
A PSNI spokesperson confirmed that an investigation is under way.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the PSNI said: “Police are investigating a report of an assault on a member of the clergy at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh.”<\/p>\n
The spokesperson added that “police inquiries are ongoing”.<\/p>\n
\nJohn McDowell is Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland for the Church of Ireland<\/p>\n
Mr Burke can be heard asking Archbishop McDowell why he had been silent while Mr Burke had spent 700 days in prison following a dispute with his former employers at Wilson’s Hospital School – a Church of Ireland-run secondary school in Co Westmeath.<\/p>\n
Mr Burke was jailed for breaching court orders not to attend the school having been dismissed.<\/p>\n
The Church of Ireland said Mr Burke and members of his family had approached the Archbishop following a funeral service he had been attending for a colleague.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the Church said: “It is a matter of deep concern and sadness that the Burke family considered this was an appropriate occasion to confront the Archbishop.<\/p>\n
“No respect was shown for the occasion or the sanctity of the cathedral grounds.<\/p>\n
“Archbishop McDowell, other members of the Church who were present, and the Church’s authorities, will assist with the PSNI\u2019s enquiries.<\/p>\n
“The Church of Ireland will not be making any further statement until the police investigation is complete.”<\/p>\n
Enoch Burke said in a statement: “As a teacher in a Church of Ireland school, I was informed by the principal that ‘it is expected’ that I use the ‘they’ pronoun for a child.<\/p>\n
“The official Church of Ireland teaching is very clearly male and female.<\/p>\n
“I refused to deny my Christian belief and as a result was taken from the school to the courts to prison to spend since that time over 700 days behind bars.”<\/p>\n
He added: “The silence of Archbishop John McDowell, Primate of All-Ireland and Patron of Wilson’s Hospital School, is astounding and no longer acceptable.<\/p>\n
“For that reason I confronted him in Armagh yesterday. He must speak out and explain why anti-Christian ideology is promoted and affirmed in Church of Ireland schools despite the Christian ethos.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Police Service of Northern Ireland is investigating an allegation of assault following an incident involving Enoch Burke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-670163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}