High Court orders immediate reimprisonment of Enoch Burke

High Court reporter

The High Court has ordered the immediate reimprisonment of Enoch Burke, less than a week after the schoolteacher was released from Mountjoy jail.

Mr Burke was brought before Mr Justice Brian Cregan on Monday hours after gardaí arrested him at Wilson’s Hospital School. The judge had ordered his arrest on Friday following his breach of a court direction prohibiting his attendance at the Co Westmeath school.

Following an application by lawyers for the school, Mr Justice Cregan said he was satisfied that Mr Burke had breached the order by attending at the school on Thursday and Friday last week.

The judge found Mr Burke to be in contempt of court and ordered his immediate committal to Mountjoy.

The developments came after Mr Justice Cregan on Wednesday ordered Mr Burke’s release from Mountjoy Prison, where he has spent some 560 days over the last three years in custody for his repeated breach of the order banning him from the school.

The judge had ordered his release to give the teacher an opportunity to prepare a new case he is bringing in relation to the composition of an appeal panel, which will hear an appeal against his dismissal from the school.

His release was ordered despite Mr Burke informing the judge that he would return to the school the following morning. Mr Burke made good on this assertion.

Mr Burke’s formal dismissal from the school some three years ago arose out of conduct following his refusal to comply with a direction from the school’s then-principal to address a transgender pupil by a new name.

Mr Burke has repeatedly claimed his jailing arises from his views on transgender issues, and that his religious and constitutional rights have been breached.

Several judges have told Mr Burke he was jailed for breaching a court order not to trespass on the school grounds, and it was not about his religious or constitutional rights but the rule of law.