Judge rules out Christmas release for Enoch Burke as contempt battle continues
Enoch Burke (centre) leaving the High Court in Dublin with his brother Isaac (left) and father Sean (second right). Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
Jailed teacher Enoch Burke will not be released for Christmas as he has been in the past, a High Court judge has said.
Mr Justice Brian Cregan also said he did not intend to release him for Easter and added that he did not understand why he had been released in the past during his previous four jailings for contempt, none of which have lasted more than 520 days. He said others in prison for contempt had not been treated like this and were let out even though they failed to purge their contempt.
The judge gave him a review date of March 3 but said that in the meantime he has liberty to apply to purge his contempt.
The judge also granted a production-in-person order from prison for Mr Burke to attend a reconstituted Disciplinary Appeals Panel, which will hear his appeal in Athlone on December 13 against his dismissal from Wilson's Hospital School in Westmeath.
He was suspended in 2022 and later dismissed following a public confrontation with the then-principal over an instruction to call a transgender student by a new name and with the pronouns "they/them", in what he claims was a refusal to allow him to exercise his constitutional and religious beliefs.
He successfully challenged the composition of the first appeals panel, and the convening of the second panel was delayed when he said he applied to the Court of Appeal (CoA) to correct an error in relation to why he was disciplined, which he said conflicted with another CoA judgment.
The CoA refused to do so and he now seeks a Supreme Court appeal against that decision. However, the new disciplinary panel is going ahead with its hearing, as an application to the Supreme Court does not act as a stay on a decision unless such a stay is given by the CoA.
The judge agreed to an application by Mr Burke allowing him to be brought from prison to personally file his application to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Mr Burke appeared in court late today after being escorted in by a number of prison officers. There was also a substantial Garda presence in the body of the court and in the balcony.
His father Sean and brother Isaac were also in attendance, with Isaac taking up a position on the senior counsel bench at the front of the court alongside Enoch.
Before proceedings began, the judge said if there was any interruption by any member of the Burke family they would be asked to leave and that if there was similar behaviour by Enoch he would be returned to prison and allowed to attend only by video link.
During recent court appearances, different members of the Burke family have been removed for disruptive behaviour.
The hearing lasted more than an hour, with a substantial part occupied by argument from Mr Burke about the meaning of specific words in Mr Justice Cregan's recent judgment jailing him again for contempt.
Among his comments were that Mr Burke had "a baleful and malign presence – an intruder, stalking the school, its teachers and its pupils”.
He also referred to a level of “verbal aggression, unregulated anger and lack of self-control” making him “a potential danger to pupils and teachers of the school”, he said.
Mr Burke asked the judge to delete these remarks and, following the application, the judge said he would give a decision later. He and Mr Burke then engaged in a prolonged argument about the meaning of certain words in those comments, including "baleful" and "stalking".
Mr Burke handed up what he said was the Oxford English Dictionary meaning of certain words but when he did so the judge said it was not the Oxford English version as he had before him on the bench. What Mr Burke had submitted was "Oxford Languages" and not the authoritative version, he said.
"One needs to be more intellectually rigorous if you are asking me to set it aside", the judge said.
The judge also awarded costs of today's hearing against Mr Burke. The court heard a decision by the Legal Costs Adjudicator on the final costs bill against him for various court applications by the school will be given in February.
He also agreed to a minor amendment to a previous judgment in relation to requesting the Attorney General to bring criminal contempt proceedings against Mr Burke and other members of his family.
He said he hoped the Attorney would make a decision in two weeks and that if he declined to bring such proceedings, the court would do so of its own motion.
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