Judge orders arrest of Enoch Burke and to be brought before court on Monday

Ann O'Loughlin

A judge has ordered that teacher Enoch Burke be arrested and brought before the High Court on Monday to say why he should not be sent back to prison after he again breached an order not to trespass on Wilson's Hospital School in Westmeath.

On Friday afternoon, Mr Justice Brian Cregan said he was prepared to order his attachment, or arrest, so he can be brought by gardaí to the court, which will then decide whether to commit him back to Mountjoy Jail.

It followed an application by Rosemary Mallon BL, for the school, who said Mr Burke was not in court for the Friday afternoon application because, less than an hour earlier, he was still at the school.

Ms Mallon said at one point, he went past the boundary wall before a security man employed by the school stopped him from going any farther.

Ms Mallon said there was now a clear situation where yet again, a member of the regulated teaching profession, no matter what is said to him, continues to turn his back on the rule of law".

This had, she said, resulted in an unprecedented impact on the work of the school. If one thought about it, it meant the principal had to do things like re-engage security at short notice, address issues raised by pupils, parents, and others who had to get in past protests at the gate and having to deal with solicitors for this case.

"None of that is what a principal should be doing, and it is my submission and with great regret that yet again I ask Mr Burke be committed," she said.

The judge said he was satisfied Mr Burke had yet again breached a 2023 order permanently prohibiting him from trespassing on the school, and he ordered that he be brought before the court on Monday.

"Depending on what he says, I will then make an order for his committal", he said.

Mr Burke was released from prison by the judge on Wednesday, having spent more than 560 days there, over different periods over the last three years, for similar breaches.

His release on Wednesday was ordered despite Mr Burke telling the judge in no uncertain terms he would be back at the school immediately.

The judge had ordered his release to give him what he said was an opportunity to prepare a new case he is bringing in relation to the composition of an appeal panel which will hear an appeal against his dismissal.

His dismissal arose out of his conduct following a refusal to obey a direction from the then school principal to call a transgender pupil by a new name and by the they/them pronoun. Each time he has been jailed, it has been as a result of a breach of an order not to trespass on the grounds.

He has repeatedly said he has been put in jail because of his views on transgenderism in breach of his religious and constitutional rights.

Several judges have told him he was jailed for breaching a court order not to trespass on the school, and it was not about his religious or constitutional rights but a matter of the rule of law.