Enoch Burke allowed to notify school board of temporary injunction against appeal ruling

Enoch Burke (pictured) told the court that the Disciplinary Appeals Board had been informed on Monday evening of his application this morning and served with papers, but he did not see any representative in court. File picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

School teacher Enoch Burke has been granted leave of the High Court to notify the three-member Disciplinary Appeals Panel of his intention to seek a temporary injunction restraining them from issuing their recommendation in his appeal against his dismissal from Wilson’s Hospital School.

Burke’s application will be heard on Thursday which, if granted, will in all probability be followed by an application for a permanent High Court restraint on them taking any further steps in his appeal.

His action, for which he was released from prison on Tuesday morning to present to the court, is against panel members Sean O’Longain, Geraldine O’Brien and Jack Cleary.

The panel has scheduled a meeting for this Saturday to consider further Burke’s appeal which he is attempting to block on the basis, as he told Mr Justice Barry O’Donnel in court this morning, that panel hearings had been to date devoid of “any sense of natural justice and fair procedures”. 

Burke, with the assistance of his brother, Isaac, and sister, Ammi, formally presented his argument to Judge O’Donnell without incident although several gardaí had been assigned to duty within the court in the event of any difficulty. In the past court loud objections by members of the Burke family have led to their being removed from court by gardaí.

Burke, who was taken by prison van from Mountjoy Jail this morning where he has been imprisoned for contempt of court. He was later returned to prison.

Burke is seeking a number of declarations from the High Court, including that his appeal is remitted to a fresh hearing by a newly constituted panel which does not include any of the three named defendants.

He is also looking for court orders as follows:

• That Geraldine O’Brien’s refusal to recuse herself from the panel is unfair, unreasonable, unlawful and contrary to natural justice and fair procedures.
• That O’Brien’s alleged statement at the outset of the appeal hearing to the effect she would, if directed, have to implement school instructions, constitutes pre-judgment of the issue.
• That the panel’s alleged solicitation of additional documentation from the school board had damaged the prospect of a fair hearing.
• That the panel’s fundamentally unfair manner of handling his appeal also damaged the possibility of a fair hearing.
• That its refusal to allow him cross-examine witnesses at the December 13, 2025, hearing immediately damaged his prospects and was unfair, unreasonable and unlawful.
• That the panel’s decision to permit the former school board chairman to give evidence was unfair and unlawful.
• That the ending of the hearing had been unfair and unreasonable.

Burke told the court that the Disciplinary Appeals Board had been informed on Monday evening of his application this morning and served with papers, but he did not see any representative in court.

Judge O’Donnell said he would permit short service on the defendants of Mr Burke’s application for a temporary injunction to be heard on Thursday and directed that he be produced in court by the prison authorities so that he could further make his application to the court.