Judge orders Enoch Burke to be imprisoned once more for contempt of court

Judge says fines and security failed to deter Enoch Burke, ordering his immediate committal for repeated contempt of court

Enoch Burke at the High Court, Dublin. Picture: Brian Lawless, PA

A High Court judge has ordered that secondary school teacher Enoch Burke be sent to jail.

Ordering the teacher's immediate reimprisonment, Mr Justice Brian Cregan said there was no option other than to imprison Mr Burke for contempt of court “for repeated and flagrant breaches of the court order” directing him to stay away from Wilson's Hospital School.

Mr Burke, he said, will remain in prison until a review date is set by the court.

He said the schoolteacher, however, “has the keys to his own prison,” and if he wishes to purge his contempt then he can be released.

The judge said fines and the appointment of security guards had failed to deter Enoch Burke from breaching court order.

Mr Justice Cregan said the case involved the most “deliberate, sustained and concerted attack by Mr Burke and other members of the Burke family on the authority of the civil courts and the Rule of Law in this country in recent times.”

“It is important that the courts ensure that the rule of law is maintained that those who deliberately breach court order are held to account and that those who seek the protection of the courts against malign teachers will not be turned away,” the judge said.

None of the Burke family were present in court on Tuesday when Mr Justice Brian Cregan gave judgment in relation to Enoch’s continuing contempt of orders not to trespass on Wilson's Hospital School in Westmeath.

The judge said it served no useful purpose to impose further fines because Mr Burke had continued to breach court orders and had not voluntarily paid a euro towards them.

It was also clear that appointing security guards had failed to deter him from entering the school premises, and he confronted the guards daily, he said.

He was also recording his interactions with them and posting them on X, constantly waiting for an opportunity to enter the grounds when guards were not present. He had also driven several cars onto the grounds while ignoring the guards, he said.

Despite being repeatedly jailed for contempt and repeatedly given his liberty by the courts, he has repeatedly abused that freedom by trespassing again, he said.

"There is now, in my view, no longer any option left to enforce the order of the court other than to imprison Mr Burke again for contempt of court for repeated and flagrant breaches of the court order", he said. It means gardaí will arrest him and bring him straight to prison.

He therefore ordered his immediate committal to prison until a review date is set by the court or until he purges his contempt.

The judge also said he intends to invoke criminal contempt of court, which, unlike civil contempt for disobeying orders, concerns contempt for disrupting the court. He asked that the Attorney General also bring criminal contempt proceedings against other members of the family — his mother Martina, his brother Isaac and sister Ammi — as well as against Enoch himself.

The judgment came in the wake of weeks of continuing trespass by Mr Burke and by other members of his family on Wilson's Hospital School, where he worked until his suspension three years ago over his behaviour after being directed by the then principal to call a transgender student the they/them pronoun and use their new name.

He has claimed his jailing — for more than 500 days at different times over the last three years — is over his opposition to transgenderism and his defence of Christian beliefs under the Constitution.

Mr Justice Cregan said this case was not about transgenderism, and if Mr Burke had been directed by the court to comply with the principal’s direction, then it would be about transgenderism.

What the case involved was the "most deliberate, sustained and concerted attack by Mr Burke, and other members of the Burke family, on the authority of the civil courts and the Rule of Law in this country in recent times", he said.

Mr Burke was not imprisoned over his transgenderism views but for contempt of court because he breached orders not to trespass on school property.

"I am sure that any of the pupils of Wilson's Hospital, from transition year up, would understand that distinction. It is not difficult to understand".

The judge outlined the behaviour of Burke family members during four hearings over the last few weeks when they repeatedly interrupted proceedings and called the judge a liar.

He said Mr Burke "presents himself to the court as an utterly intransigent litigant who is so blinkered in his approach to all issues that he believes that only he is right and that everybody else is wrong,", the judge said.

"He seems unwilling to acknowledge the simple distinction between issues of transgenderism (to which he says he has religious objections) and issues in relation to court orders", he said.

The rule of law applies to everyone in this country, and Mr Burke has continued to trespass, he said.

"One wonders how would Mr. Burke, and other members of the Burke family, respond if a group of people trespassed on their family home and garden and refused to leave when asked.

"He would undoubtedly seek the protection of the courts. And how would he respond if those same protestors refused to obey court orders restraining their trespass".

It is when nothing is done about this behaviour that the rule of law breaks down and "a vicious cycle begins."

The judge said he would leave over to next week other matters, including those relating to the seizure of Burke family cars which were used to drive him onto the school grounds.