Teacher Enoch Burke returned to Mountjoy Prison for contempt of court

An Irish High Court judge has returned Enoch Burke to Mountjoy Prison in Dublin after finding him in contempt of court after he repeatedly trespassed at the school where he used to teach.

Mr Burke was released from Mountjoy Prison on Wednesday to prepare for a case against an appeals body due to review his dismissal from Wilson’s Hospital School.

His release was on the condition he would not return to the Co Westmeath school, but Mr Burke appeared there on Thursday and Friday.

In court on Monday Rosemary Mallon, a barrister representing the school’s board of management, read an affidavit from the school’s principal.

Noel Cunningham said Mr Burke had arrived at the school on both Thursday and Friday mornings and was stopped walking up to the school by a security guard they had privately hired, but stayed standing beyond the school’s boundary wall.

He said there were also a number of protesters at the school gates, some of whom “briefly” trespassed on school property.

Mr Cunningham said he had complaints from staff and teachers who raised safety concerns about the crowd who had gathered.

He said the atmosphere at the gate was “at times unpleasant”.

In his affidavit, the headteacher also apologised for participating in an article published in The Sunday Independent, adding he did not have consent from the school’s board to take part in the piece.

He said it was a “misguided attempt” to generate some good publicity for the school but that it was “entirely inappropriate” to have given the interview in light of the ongoing legal proceedings.

Mr Burke was brought to and from court by gardai and was accompanied by his father Sean Burke and his brother Isaac Burke.

Addressing the court, Enoch Burke said: “I’m not in contempt of court, I’ve the utmost respect for court.”

To which Mr Justice Brian Cregan replied “nonsense”.

Mr Burke repeated a number of criticisms of the handling of his case by the school and the Irish justice system.

When asked to address the issue of his trespassing Mr Burke said: “I did turn up at my place of work”

In response Mr Cregan said: “You have been dismissed, it is not your place of work, what part of that sentence do you not understand.”

Mr Cregan found him in contempt of court and made an order for him to be “committed immediately” to Mountjoy Prison.

The board of management of Wilson’s Hospital School and Mr Burke have been entangled in a legal dispute stemming from incidents over a request in 2022 from the school’s then-principal to address a student by a new name and pronoun.

Mr Burke, an Evangelical Christian who taught German and history at the school, has repeatedly argued the direction was unconstitutional and went against his right to express his religious beliefs.

The school has been granted injunctive relief, restraining him from attending the school, however he continued to attend in breach of the order.

He has been fined more than 225,000 euro and imprisoned for 550 days, a figure cited by Mr Burke, for attending the school in breach of the court order.

Mr Burke’s most recent stint in jail began in late November.

He had sought a temporary injunction against a disciplinary appeals body tasked with reviewing his dismissal from the school.

At the time of Mr Burke’s release from prison last week, Mr Cregan had said he had been let out for “one reason and one reason only”; so that he had time to prepare for his case against the appeals body reviewing his dismissal and instructed him not to attend the school.

At the school on Friday, Mr Burke told reporters he had returned to Wilson’s Hospital as “I teach here” and that he was there “to work”.