Irish teacher Enoch Burke has been jailed for a third time after being arrested outside the school that sacked him for refusing to “call a boy a girl”.
The evangelical Christian was placed inside a Garda vehicle outside Wilson School Hospital in Co Westmeath, Ireland, yesterday and driven to Four Courts in Dublin, the police reported. Irish Independent.
He returned to Mountjoy Prison last night after spending more than 400 days incarcerated there for repeatedly defying a High Court order banning him from entering school premises.
Judge Michael Quinn jailed him for contempt of court after the history and German teacher refused to give a “yes” or “no” answer when asked if he intended to return to the Westmeath school again.
When the order was handed down, Mr Burke told Judge Quinn: “You will answer to God for imprisoning me for my religious beliefs.”
Irish teacher Enoch Burke has been jailed for a third time after being arrested outside the school that sacked him for refusing to “call a boy a girl”. (Pictured: Burke arriving at the appeal court in Dublin in February 2023)
Mr Burke leaves court in June 2024 with members of his family following his release from prison
Mr Burke, who was only released from prison in June, was dismissed from the school for gross misconduct in January 2023 after refusing to use a transitioning pupil’s new name and chosen pronoun “they”, saying it went against his religious beliefs.
Despite his dismissal, a court ruled in February that he was still receiving his salary while on administrative leave. At that time, he had received around 72,000 euros.
Judge QuinnThere was an ‘urgent need’ for help to enable him to deal with the difficulties the Wilson Hospital School had been experiencing, due to Mr Burke’s continued presence there.
He said Mr Burke was disrupting the daily activities and duties performed by teachers and school staff.
During the hearing, he and his family protested that the numerous judges who heard the case had not taken into account a report prepared by the school’s then headmistress, Niamh McShane.
Burke said McShane had alleged he was guilty of gross misconduct because of his refusal to call a transitioning student by a new name and the pronoun “they.” He said the court never considered the legality of that requirement.
But last year, Judge Owens ruled that the school was right to suspend Mr Burke for fear of “harmful and disruptive conduct”.
He cited Mr. Burke’s defiance of the principal during a staff meeting, a church service and a dinner.
Mr Burke insisted yesterday: “This court is simply denying me my religious beliefs and my right to have them. I am a Christian. I have Christian beliefs. My beliefs are masculine and feminine, God made them masculine and feminine.”
He cited passages from the Bible, including Genesis and the Gospel of Matthew, and claimed that in Ireland teachers were being “ordered to impose transgenderism on students”.
Mr Burke pictured at the gate of Wilson Hospital School in 2023. He has repeatedly defied a High Court injunction banning him from the school premises.
Enoch Burke’s mother, father, sister and brother were seen protesting outside Ballinrobe Community School in November on the day Education Minister Norma Foley visited.
He said it was a “hellish ideology” that resulted in children taking puberty blockers and being “scarred for life”.
He said his religious beliefs would not lead children “down the path of suicide, mutilation, regret” and breaking off relations with their parents.
“I did not impose my beliefs on anyone,” he said. “That belief was imposed on me. I was ordered to feed that poison to the young people in my charge.”
The court heard Mr Burke has failed to pay €88,000 in fines he incurred for attending school in defiance of the court order last year.
Rosemary Mallon BL, representing the school, confirmed there were “difficulties” in collecting it.
He said the law allowed a debt collection agency to recover fines imposed in District Court, but asset seizure was more generally used against a company than an individual, and there was no easy way to do it.
She confirmed that the Department of Education is still paying Burke’s salary while his appeal against his January 2023 dismissal remains on hold.
The court was told the appeal cannot be heard until the Court of Appeal rules on Mr Burke’s challenge in relation to the appeal board members.
Enoch Burke is ejected by police on 25 January 2023 after following a bus through the school gates
Enoch Burke was seen arriving at Wilson Teaching Hospital in January 2023 and ignoring the court order after being fired.
Wilson Hospital School in County Westmeath, Ireland. Former teacher objected to former headteacher asking staff to refer to a transgender student by his new name and pronouns
Burke was seen arriving at the High Court in Dublin in September 2022 after being sent to Mountjoy Prison in Dublin for breaching a temporary court order preventing him from attending his workplace.
Former history and German teacher Enoch Burke was spotted outside Wilson Hospital School in January 2023, violating his court order to stay away.
Mr Burke was involved in a gender-based dispute at Wilson Hospital School in May 2022.
He told his principal that he “opposed transgenderism” because of his religious beliefs and said he would not address the student, who was transitioning, by his new name or using “they” pronouns.
Burke publicly criticized the school’s “requirement” that she use the student’s chosen pronouns.
This came after headteacher Niamh McShane sent an email to staff asking them to address the pupil in question by their new pronouns.
He was first jailed in September 2022 and spent 100 days in prison before being released. He was jailed for a second time in September 2023, when he spent Christmas behind bars before being released in June this year.
Mr. Burke is appealing his expulsion from school.
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