Irish teacher Enoch Burke has been returned to Mountjoy Prison after defying a High Court order concerning a school policy on transgender students.
Burke, a teacher of German and history and an Evangelical Christian, was arrested by Gardaí at Wilson’s Hospital School in Co. Westmeath on the morning of January 19th and taken to the High Court in Dublin.
Burke had been released from prison just days earlier to prepare legal proceedings against a disciplinary appeals body reviewing his dismissal from the school. His release was conditional on avoiding the school premises, but he appeared there multiple times, stating that it was “my duty to be at my workplace.” The High Court ordered his immediate return to prison after finding that he repeatedly breached the court injunction.
Enoch Burke has been imprisoned multiple times since late 2022 for breaching a High Court injunction that barred him from the school.
The dispute originated when Burke objected on religious grounds to a request from school management to address a transitioning student by a new name and the pronoun “they.” Burke has consistently argued that complying would violate his Christian beliefs and constitutional rights. Over the course of the legal proceedings, he has spent more than 560 days in prison and faced fines totaling €225,000.
