Enoch Burke’s family has said they are “not one bit apologetic” for crashing the Ireland Funds gala in Washington last week.

On Thursday evening, Martina, Ammi, and Isaac Burke gate crashed the swanky $1,000-a-plate dinner at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.

They approached Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s table at the event, with Mrs Burke shouting that her son Enoch had been in prison for over 500 days.

They were escorted outside by the Taoiseach’s protection officers and local law enforcement, where they gave an impromptu press conference during which they believed they were addressing the American media.

They left when they were told that only Irish media were present.

In a video posted on X/Twitter on St Patrick’s Day, Martina and Isaac Burke, Enoch's mother and brother, said that people had likely seen the “scenes at the gala ball.”

Standing outside the Capitol Building in DC, they defended their actions at the event. Isaac Burke said: “We're not one bit apologetic about that protest and that interruption of that event.

“Because when our leadership are deceiving the Americans, the American people, it's right and it's fitting to shine a light on the truth actually happening in Ireland.”

Mrs Burke added: “When we were taken out, we were the whole topic of conversation. Whether it was the bathrooms, the dining area, the ball, around the dance floor, the whole topic, it's been confirmed to us, was Enoch Burke.

“Who is Enoch Burke? What's really happening in Ireland?”

After the protest, the Irish Mirror reported that “the band was in full swing and dancing had started but from the bathrooms to the dining tables, everyone was talking about the Burkes.”

In the video, the Burkes also suggested that the Taoiseach fled the event after their appearance.

Isaac Burke continued: “We went in there [and] almost immediately after we protested, the motorcade was pulled up to the back door, pulled up, I believe, to a kitchen entrance to the back of the building, Micheál Martin, and this isn't reported in the Irish media, he was bundled into the motorcade and driven off immediately.”

Mrs Burke added: “As the ball was just beginning, as they were getting onto the dance floor, Micheál and his wife were being carried out the back door.”

Mr Martin and his delegation stayed briefly at the Ireland Funds gala after the Burkes’ interruption but left shortly after to attend the annual Stripe after-party, which is held by the payment platform founded by Irish brothers John and Patrick Collison.

Elsewhere in their 12-minute video, the Burke family took aim at several other Irish politicians.

This included Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, who Mrs Burke said “must have brought many suitcases full of outfits” as she was “dressed up like a princess, it was said, at the gala ball”.

She added: “To me, it’s absolutely pathetic that she would be here representing Northern Ireland and have nothing of substance to say.”

Mr Burke was suspended from Wilson Hospital School in Westmeath for refusing to refer to a student by they/them pronouns.

He was later jailed for breaking a court order obeying him to stay away from the school. He also refused to purge contempt of court, which would have allowed him to be released.

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