LAST UPDATE | 8 Sep 2023
A HIGH COURT judge has ordered that teacher Enoch Burke be returned to prison due to his ongoing refusal to stay away from Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath.
The school’s Board of Management had asked the court for orders seeking Burke’s attachment and committal to prison over his deliberate failure to comply with a permanent injunction granted by Mr Justice Alexander Owens earlier this year.
In a ruling tonight, Mr Justice Mark Heslin said that there “was no dispute” that Burke had “flagrantly breached” orders requiring him to stay away from the school.
The judge ordered that he be committed to prison “indefinitely” until he purges his contempt by agreeing to stay away from the school.
The judge, after finding Burke was in contempt of court, asked the school teacher three times if he was prepared to give an undertaking in the terms of the order against him.
On each occasion Burke, accompanied in court by members of his family including his parents Martina and Sean, remained silent.
The judge said he was taking his silence to mean he was refusing to give the undertaking sought, and committed him to Mountjoy Prison, where the teacher spent over 100 days between September and December of last year.
The matter is to be reviewed before the court in early October.
The judge stressed that Burke could secure his release from prison at any time, by agreeing to stay away from the school. Mr Justice Heslin was interrupted on several occasions by members of the Burke family, who were each directed to leave the courtroom.
Burke’s father, Sean, and brother, Isaac, were both physically removed from the courtroom by members of An Garda Síochána.
Burke’s mother, Martina, had at one stage called the judge “a traitor” and said her son had “every right to be at the school”. The ex-teacher’s mother accused the court of “predetermining” the matter.
The school’s board claimed that Burke had breached Mr Justice Owen’s order restraining him from attending at Wilson’s Hospital, which had suspended him before dismissing him, unless he is given express permission to do so by the school authorities.
Represented by Alex White SC and Rosemary Mallon Bl, the board said that Burke had attended at Wilson’s Hospital campus every day since the new school year commenced in late August.
Counsel said that the central issue was a net one, namely that Burke had breached the orders. The board claimed that, in breach of the injunction, Burke had attended both “outside and inside the school”.
Opening the application White said that the application had been brought with great reluctance but that the school had no option other than seek Burke’s committal.
Representing himself, Burke opposed the application and argued that it was in breach of his constitutional rights to religious freedom and expression.
Burke’s presence at the school “is causing severe disruption for staff and students” counsel said.
Counsel said a large part of the school’s principal, Mr Frank Milling, and his staff’s working day is taken up dealing with Burke’s presence at Wilson’s Hospital.
On occasions Milling has had “to close doors” to prevent Burke from entering the school, counsel added.
Opposing the application, Burke claimed that Mr Justice Owen’s order was invalid and that the court’s “hands would be dripping with blood” if it decided to hear the committal application.
He again claimed that the board’s actions against him arise out of his opposition to “go along with transgenderism” something he said was “damaging to children”.
In a sworn statement to the court, he rejected claims by the board that he was causing “untold difficulties, and stressful for staff and students at the school”.
He also rejected a claim that his presence at the school was “frightening” and that claims made against him by the school were fraudulent and should not be considered by the court.
He said that every day since last January, following his re-attended at the school following his release from prison, he has received “overwhelming support from parents, students and staff at the school”.
He said he utterly rejected claims made by the school’s principal Frank Milling and chairman of the board John Rogers that “my presence at my workplace has caused stress disruption, fear or a safety concern at the school”.
He said that at all times he has conducted himself in “a calm measured, reasonable and respectful manner in my conduct at the school and [in] my interaction with others at the school”.
He said that he only speaks to students after they speak to him.
He claims parents and student have shaken his hand and also did so last May, before the end of the school year.
Students were “begging me to sign their school shirts and blouses” as well as asking for autographs and posing for pictures.
He said this was done despite the fact that “students have been warned not to talk to me outside of the school”.
He claims that students have asked him about his summer, waved at him, given him the thumbs up and one student told him to “stay strong” and that “I agree with what you are doing, sir”.
He also says that others have expressed their support for his stance and that the school was “totally wrong”.
He further claimed that a parent told him that a student was removed from the school due what the former principal was “pushing” on the school.
He said that he has been mocked over his religious beliefs and said that the claims by the board formed part of an attempt to provoke and intimidate him.
He was also critical of a solicitor that represents the board, who he claimed had gotten the Gardaí to unlawfully arrest him.
He also told the court that he expects to be reinstated to his post.
In his ruling, the judge rejected all of Burke’s arguments and said that the submissions he had raised issues were not relevant to the application before the court.
The judge said other issues raised by Burke, including his claims about the school’s solicitors, were “baseless” the judge added.
Burke, he said was clearly in flagrant breach of court orders, adding that such orders are something that have to be obeyed.
The judge added that Burke could not be treated by anybody else and it was an “insult” to all law-abiding citizens to allow somebody breach orders of the court.
Following his suspension in August 2022, Burke was sued the school over his failure to comply with a court order requiring him to stay away from the school.
That resulted in his incarceration in Mountjoy Prison for several months. He was released shortly before Christmas, without purging his contempt.
He again started attending at the school after the holidays, and the High Court imposed a daily fine of €700 on the ex-school teacher.
Burke has also brought a challenge against the three-person panel of persons appointed to hear his appeal against his dismissal from his teaching position.
Judgement is awaited in those separate proceedings against the panel.
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