Three years of trespassing – how Enoch Burke came to be jailed again

It has been more than three years since Enoch Burke was first ordered not to trespass on the grounds of Wilson’s Hospital School.

In that time he has been jailed multiple times and racked up 225,000 euro in fines.

Reading from parts of his 50-page ruling before ordering Mr Burke be sent back to prison, Mr Justice Cregan outlined some of his and his family’s behaviour during that time, saying they appeared to think they have “a greater moral authority than the courts”.

During the hearing at the Four Courts in Dublin the High Court judge described how Mr Burke was dismissed for gross misconduct from Wilson’s Hospital School because of his behaviour at school events, including a religious service, and his refusal to accept “transgenderism as a policy of the school”.

Mr Burke was working as a German and History teacher when he was suspended from the County Westmeath school in August 2022.

They then obtained a court injunction preventing him from trespassing on the school premises, which he refused to abide by.

Soon afterwards, in September 2022, he was jailed for contempt of court and refused to purge his contempt, meaning he would not commit to obeying the court order.

Then in December that year Mr Justice Brian O’Moore released him, describing him as “exploiting his imprisonment for his own ends”.

Instead, he imposed a fee of 700 euro for each day Mr Burke trespassed on school property.

In the summer of 2023 a court found that Mr Burke’s suspension from his post, pending a decision as to whether he should be dismissed for gross misconduct, was lawful and ordered Mr Burke to pay the school 15,000 euro in damages, which has not been paid to date.

Mr Justice Alexander Owens also granted the school a permanent injunction against Mr Burke trespassing on its grounds.

But he continued to turn up at the school and was jailed again in September 2023, before being released the following June.

In September 2024 Mr Burke was arrested again at Wilson’s Hospital School, an incident which was filmed by his family and posted online.

In December 2024, Mr Justice Nolan released him from prison and increased the fines to 1,400 euro a day and then 2,000 euro a day.

He now owes more than 225,000 euro in fines, with Mr Justice Cregan saying he has not “paid a euro” of his fines voluntarily.

The court also ordered Mr Burke’s teacher’s salary garnished to pay the fines, with Mr Justice Cregan saying around 40,000 euro has been retrieved this way.

As the 2025 school year began, Mr Burke returned to the school several times.

In a sworn affidavit the school’s new principal Noel Cunningham said on one occasion an induction activity for first year students had to be moved because Mr Burke was standing in a communal area of the school.

In September 2025, Mr Justice Nolan requested the school consider hiring security guards to keep Mr Burke off the school premises.

Mr Cunningham also said the school had to change security companies after Mr Burke and his brother filmed them, posted it to Mr Burke’s X account and security officers were subjected to online abuse.

This caused the cost of providing security to the school to rise to more than 1,000 euro a week.

In his ruling Mr Justice Cregan outlined how, during a number of court hearings, Mr Burke’s family members disrupted court proceedings and several of them were removed from the court by the gardai.

Now, they could face criminal proceedings after the judge said he believed there is evidence they committed a type of contempt known as contempt in the face of the court.