Three weeks after a judge ordered their arrest and committal to prison, mother and daughter Martina and Ammi Burke have still not been located and jailed.
Gardaí say that while they will at some point execute the judge’s warrant to arrest the Burke women to serve a short prison sentence, arising from contempt of court, their detention is not a major policing priority.
“You are not dealing with violent people, or people who are a security risk. There’s no danger to the community with this one,” said one garda.
The Burke women are members of the well-known evangelical conservative Christian family from Co Mayo known for their strident beliefs, long-running protests against what they call “transgenderism” and disruptions of court proceedings and public meetings.
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In the High Court on March 4th, Judge Brian Cregan found Martina and Ammi Burke guilty of contempt “in the face of the court” over their behaviour - “roaring and shouting” and “intense and venomous” interruptions - that led to a February 20th hearing being suspended.
The judge ordered the Garda to arrest the women for committal to prison to serve a two-week sentence he imposed as a sanction for their contempt.
He said that during the February 20th hearing he had taken the “only sensible” course of action in striking out a challenge by Martina’s son and Ammi’s brother, Enoch Burke, in relation to the membership of a panel due to hear his appeal over his dismissal from Wilson’s Hospital School.
Martina and Sean Burke have 10 children and live just outside Castlebar, where they run Burke Christian School in a barn-type property.
Should Martina and Ammi Burke eventually be arrested and jailed they will likely be committed to the Dochas Centre women’s prison on the Mountjoy campus in Dublin.
For now, gardaí in Castlebar are trying to gather intelligence as to the whereabouts of the two women, especially any information or sightings in Co Mayo. Gardaí are also liaising with their counterparts in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
Nine days after Cregan’s order, on March 13th, Martina Burke and some family members attended the opening of the Free Presbyterian Church’s new Whitefield Bible College in Tandragee, Co Armagh.
The Burkes were removed from that gathering by members of the PSNI after they interrupted proceedings.
Garda sources said that if any evidence emerged that the women were making plans to leave the island this would be acted upon.
It is routine in the Irish justice system for arrest or committal warrants issued by the courts to take weeks or even months to be acted on and the subjects located and arrested, according to sources.
Some individuals are never found, opting to flee abroad and stay there long-term.
Two days after the High Court ordered the arrest and committal to prison of Ammi and Martina Burke, a team of gardaí went to the Burke home but could not locate them.
The exchange on the day between gardaí and some Burke family members was recorded and later shared via Enoch Burke’s account on the X social media platform.
“Gardaí flood Burke family home to arrest and imprison Enoch Burke’s mother and sister,” the message accompanying the video stated. “A sad day in our country when An Garda Síochána can spare eight guards to come to the Burke family home to arrest Martina and Ammi Burke.”
One of the Burke siblings questioned one garda about whether he had a court order or a search warrant, telling them: “If you had a bit of education, you’d know the difference.”
Gardaí did not enter the property on the day, with sources saying there was little point creating a confrontation that could spin out of control.
They appear to be very conscious that operations to locate and arrest the two women will generate opportunities to record any unsuccessful efforts and are reluctant to be drawn into that.
Since the call to the family home on March 6th, Martina and Ammi Burke’s whereabouts have mostly been unknown to gardaí.
Some children calling to the school for lessons, or grinds, have had their appointments cancelled. The family’s pop-up shop in Market Square was closed for a period after the court issued its order.
On Tuesday, Seán Burke was in the family’s pop-up shop, which was quiet with just one customer present. Burke politely declined to talk to The Irish Times.
In the shop’s front-window display of children’s books and games is a copy of the Bible, opened on a page about The Parable of the Two Sons.
There was no sign of Burke’s sons or Martina and Ammi in Castlebar on Tuesday.
Around the corner on Main Street the owner of Castle Books, David Brennan, was not aware of the latest twist in the Burke story.
“A few years ago when the Burke protests all kicked off people used to ring here looking for them. They inadvertently thought our shop was theirs,” said Brennan.
“I have lived in Castlebar all my life and every now and then you would see them on the street but I had only vaguely heard of them before all of this.”
He added: “I believe they are geniuses and I know friends of mine whose children would have gone out there for grinds and they speak very highly of them.”
Garda sources said it would be unrealistic and a waste of resources to commit significant manpower to finding the Burke women as quickly as possible.
“In this case, it’s high profile and so everyone is getting a blow-by-blow account of what’s happening,” said one source.
“But this isn’t unusual. Unless someone poses a major threat, we don’t exactly have a whole team of [Garda] members out looking for them. It’s not the way these things work.”
The consensus inside the Garda is that the Burkes will be located and arrested in time. However, gardaí said eventually, if the women are not located, the Garda’s efforts will have to be stepped up, especially if the matter goes before the courts again.
Several gardaí agreed it will become increasingly embarrassing the longer the women remained at liberty, especially if members of their family were sharing videos of them online.
Across Castlebar’s Market Square, Mustapha Aboubi, the longtime owner of the Olive Tree café and restaurant, expresses very definite views about the Burkes.
“I personally respect their fight. They have a cause they believe in and have been mistreated because of their principles,” he said.
“Who am I to judge someone because they have different beliefs? They are very highly educated and people respect that here in Castlebar, but they are afraid to express their opinions because these days you have to fit into a certain box.
“It is important to say that Castlebar is a sophisticated and multicultural town now with many different sets of beliefs.”
As one woman in the queue in the nearby Tesco store said: “The Burkes have certainly put Castlebar on the map.”
