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Enoch Burke freed after judge concludes he is ‘exploiting his imprisonment’
Controversial anti-transgender schoolteacher Enoch Burke has been released from jail by the High Court despite not purging his contempt after a judge concluded he was exploiting his imprisonment for his own ends.
But he was warned he would be fined €1,400-a-day if he chooses to continue breaching a court order restraining him from entering the grounds of Wilson’s Hospital School when it reopens after Christmas.
Mr Justice David Nolan said Mr Burke’s behaviour suggested he was acting under the influence of others who had persuaded him to be a martyr.
The decision came in a chaotic hearing during which Mr Burke repeatedly talked over the judge as the ruling was being delivered.
Giving reasons for his decision, Mr Justice Nolan said it was one of those very rare occasions where coercive imprisonment should stop, at least for the moment.
The judge said he also had to consider the burden on the taxpayer, which he said was continuing to pay Mr Burke’s salary while he appeals his dismissal, on top of the €84,000-a-year it was costing to keep him in jail.
“It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Mr Burke is exploiting his imprisonment for his own ends,” the judge said.
Mr Justice Nolan said the only possible interpretation of Mr Burke’s actions was that he sees some advantage to his continued imprisonment.
“It is clear to me he is being persuaded by others that he is best seen as a martyr,” he said.
In total, Mr Burke has spent 512 days in Mountjoy Prison, over three separate periods since August 2022, for his repeated refusal to comply with various court orders requiring him to keep away from the secondary school in Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath, where he taught German and history.
He was suspended and later dismissed by the school’s board of management after publicly clashing with its then principal over a request that teachers address a transgender child by a new name and “they/them” pronouns.
Mr Burke, who is from a family of well-known evangelical Christians, refused to do so on religious grounds.
Despite being suspended and later sacked, he continued to show up at the school each day “for work”, even after the board secured a temporary injunction restraining him from doing so. The High Court granted a permanent injunction in May last year.
The matter was before the court today for a periodic review of Mr Burke’s incarceration for defying the permanent injunction.
The judge said that instead of imprisonment he would impose a daily fine of €1,400 on Mr Burke for each day he defies the order – double the €700 fine previously imposed on him by another judge.
He urged Mr Burke to use the Christmas period to “reflect on his fruitless campaign” and said it was open to the school to again seek his attachment and committal if he continued to breach the order in the New Year.
The judge said it would be “a travesty” if Mr Burke was to end up spending more time in prison “over something that is entirely misconceived”.
Mr Burke never paid the fines previously imposed on him, and Mr Justice Nolan said he now owed the State €193,000.
Lawyers for the school previously raised concerns that there was no mechanism to collect the fines from him.
In his ruling, the judge directed that representatives of the Attorney General and the Department of Finance come before the court to advise on what mechanism is available to ensure Mr Burke’s salary could be used to discharge the fines.
Mr Justice Nolan noted the matter had taken up considerable court time, giving rise to no less than 41 orders in the High Court alone.
He said Mr Burke’s talents as a teacher were being “entirely wasted” and that he repeatedly came to court to make “a misguided and at times ridiculous argument that the school and the court are trying to abolish religious liberties”.
The judge continued: “For a man of such intelligence, this sort of nonsense suggest to me that he is acting under the influence of other parties.”
Mr Justice Nolan said it was noteworthy that when he asked Mr Burke at a previous hearing if he was under the influence of someone else, before the teacher could reply his mother Martina “jumped from behind the bench” and accused the judge “of being under the influence some other party”.
During today’s hearing, Mr Burke repeatedly talked over Mr Justice Nolan and refused to answer when asked if he would comply with the court order.
Mr Burke was accompanied in court by his mother Martina and siblings Ammi, Isaac and Josiah.
A flashpoint arose almost immediately when the judge said that anyone creating a disturbance would be removed by gardaí and banned from future hearings in the matter.
Mr Burke repeatedly queried these comments, saying the judge did not have the power to bar people from court. The judge insisted he did and several times asked Mr Burke to “sit down” and “stop talking”, but the teacher ignored these instructions.
Mr Justice Nolan rose to consider his ruling and when he came back Mr Burke continued to raise the issue, repeatedly saying “Judge, you told a lie this morning”.
Mr Burke continued to speak over the judge throughout the delivery of the ruling.
“He [Mr Burke] asserts that his religious beliefs prevent him from describing transgender people as ‘they’ and he projects his imprisonment as some form of punishment visited upon him because he has stood up for his beliefs. He is profoundly incorrect,” Mr Justice Nolan said.
“His jailing has been brought about by his own decision to breach court orders by attending at the school when he knows he should not do so.
“He has chosen to interpret the orders of the court as requiring him to act in a manner inconsistent with his religious beliefs when it is patently clear to the general public and anybody following this matter that this is indeed not the case.”
The judge said Mr Burke was free to hold his views and to speak about them trenchantly but he was not free to go around “flouting the law”.
“The reason why Mr Burke is here today is he will not abide by the court order,” he said.
After the ruling, Alex White SC, for the board of management, said it was concerned Mr Burke would be at the school when it reopens on January 6.
“He may well be, and at that point the fine of €1,400 will be in motion,” the judge replied.
Mr Burke was freed by the court twice before, only to again face applications from the board to commit him to prison.
His most recent imprisonment began on September 2 after he repeatedly turned up at the school following the commencement of the educational year.
Jailing him in September, Mr Justice Michael Quinn said he was satisfied Mr Burke’s attendance at the school was disruptive of the duties and functions of staff seeking to provide ordered schooling to pupils.
While Mr Burke claims that he has been imprisoned for his religious views, several judges have rejected this, saying compliance with court orders did not require Mr Burke to abandon his beliefs.