Enoch Burke Summoned to High Court Over Alleged Breach of Trespass Order by Wilson’s Hospital School

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A High Court judge has directed that Enoch Burke should appear in court for bringing an allegation that the teacher failed to observe a trespass order which barred him from entering Wilson’s Hospital School in Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath.

The board of management of the school is seeking orders which would be a third time that Mr. Burke is imprisoned, under allegations that he was in violation of high court orders that were issued in the previous year.

The school claims that since August 22, Mr. Enoch Burke has been reporting to the campus everyday thus causing inconvenience to the staff and students. According to the case’s judge Mr. Justice Barry O’Donnell there is a case to answer in regard to the allegations of violating an injunction granted by Mr. Justice Alexander Owens in 2022.

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The judge was assured that Mr. Burke had received the letter concerning the last application by the school in the flagged continuous legal battle and ordered the gardaí to produce Mr. Burke before the court for contempt of court.

Mr. Burke was absent from the court but his mother Martina Burke and his sister Ammi Burke were in the court session. Gardaí took them out after they tried to disrupt the judge, to whom the case had been famous for intermissions and the judge ensured that there would be no interruption during the case.

Mr. Justice O’Donnell further pointed out that it is preferred that Mr. Burke come to court by his own free will; however, they will compel his attendance through gardaí if needed. To this day, it is still hard to determine when Mr. Burke is going to be taken to court.

Mr. Enoch Burke said he went to the school’s office and the school represented therein by Rosemary Mallon to respond to this growing concern being made by her together with an incident that he asserted intruded the Transition Year’s staff meeting by attending it. 

She also pointed out that other persons who she said were supporters of Mr. Enoch Burke have started attending the school and this has further compounded the board’s worries.

Ms. Mallon said that as much as the school prefers not to resort to such measures, the school was compelled to seek the commitment of Mr. Burke to prison. She further elaborated the legal battle that the school is attempting on the violation of the injunction where Mr. Burke still persists in disobeying after serving imprisonment and being fined for that.

The court was told that even though the school tried to get the gardaí involved, they could not do so because it was a civil dispute. Mr. Enoch Burke, serves as a German and history teacher, has been involved in the legal battle with the school since 2022 for violating the policy of addressing the student by the name and pronoun he/ she preferred. 

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Mr. Burke claims that his rights were violated and affirms that violence results from his religious stand against “transgenderism”.

In his legal proceedings, Mr. Burke has often contended that for this reason he has been penalised. He has been to jail twice at Mountjoy Prison and was detained for over 400 days but he never corrected his contempt of the court.

In June he was released on a warning from Mr. Justice Mark Sanfey who told him that the courts would have no hesitation in sending him back to prison if he disobeyed the order.

The court was informed again that Mr. Enoch Burke was imprisoned on September 23, 2023 for contempt of the court as he failed to obey an earlier permanent injunction granted in the same year in February. While Mr. Burke did not appeal that order, he brought an application to quash it as unreasonable, unjust, and unconstitutional—before the High Court.

This protracted case embodies social issues regarding free speech, religion, and obedience to the law since Mr. Enoch Burke persists in challenging the school’s orders and the court’s decisions against him.

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