High Court orders continued imprisonment of Enoch Burke

The High Court has ordered the continued imprisonment of secondary school teacher, Enoch Burke, after he again refused to agree to abide by a court order.

Mr Burke was imprisoned for the third time last month, for failing to obey an injunction granted last year that ordered him to stay away from Wilson's Hospital School in Co Westmeath.

He was sacked from the school in January 2023.

But he has appealed the dismissal and remains on full pay pending the hearing of that appeal.

He was first suspended in August 2022, following a dispute between him and the then-principal of the school over using "they/them" pronouns for a student.

Mr Burke said he could not do this because of his religious beliefs.

The court has heard that he raised the matter publicly at a religious service where he confronted the principal, Niamh McShane, about the issue.

He has repeatedly attended at the school despite being suspended and subsequently sacked.

The school has described this as "stressful" and disruptive for staff and students.

Mr Burke maintained that he was in prison because of his religious beliefs.

However, during a short but heated hearing this morning, Mr Justice David Nolan put it to him that he was in prison because he would not abide by a court order.

He was before the court to give him an opportunity to purge his contempt and be released from jail by agreeing to abide by the order.

Mr Burke said the High Court had "from the beginning" misconstrued the basis for the disciplinary action taken against him.

He told the court the action had been taken because of his Christian beliefs against "transgenderism", set out "in the book of Genesis" and in the words of "our lord Jesus Christ".

Mr Burke said the basis of the disciplinary proceedings was clear from the report of Ms McShane to the school’s board of management and he claimed the court injunctions had been granted without any analysis of the report.

Judge Nolan said he was in court for one reason and there was only one issue before him - whether or not Mr Burke would purge his contempt.

The judge told Mr Burke he did not want him to be in prison, and "the way to get out of prison" was to tell the court he would abide by the order to stay away from the school.

Judge Nolan asked Mr Burke on ten occasions whether he would abide by the order.

He told him: "I would like you to say yes, and then I will let you out of jail."

He said Mr Burke’s job was to answer the question, while Mr Burke told the judge his job was to uphold the Constitution.

During the hearing, Mr Burke’s mother, Martina, who was in court along with her husband, Sean, daughter, Ammi and son, Isaac, made several comments, leading the judge to ask Mr Burke if he was "being controlled by someone else".

Members of the Burke family accused the judge of being controlled, saying he was a "political actor, upholding a political decision made by a political court, to force teachers to accept transgenderism without any legal authority".

Judge Nolan said it was clear to him that Mr Burke had no intention of abiding by the court order.

He said in those circumstances, "with great reluctance", he had to send him back to prison.

He granted an application by barrister, Rosemary Mallon, for the school, for her costs and he adjourned the matter to 20 December, telling Mr Burke: "I hope you have an opportunity to reconsider."

Mr Burke has now spent more than 400 days in prison on three separate occasions since September 2022.