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ENOCH BURKE REPEATEDLY argued with a High Court judge during the latest hearing in which he refused to stay away from the grounds of Wilson’s Hospital School.
The former teacher was told he will remain in prison for “another period of time” despite his dismissal being upheld by the Disiplinary Appeals Panel (DAP) last month.
The court is also set to hear the approximate amount of money that Burke owes in fines for continuing to trespass at the school when proceedings involving the school are heard again later this month, following a request by Judge Brian Cregan.
A barrister for the Department of Education also confirmed that the teacher is no longer being paid his salary following the confirmation of his dismissal by the school.
Burke has been imprisoned for more than 700 days for contempt of court over the breach of an injunction not to trespass on the school grounds.
The order was first handed down by Judge Alexander Owens in July 2023, when the judge said that Burke had defied court orders and the board of the school by attending Wilson’s Hospital School following his initial suspension the previous summer.
Burke belatedly sought to overturn Judge Owens’ order in the Court of Appeal in April, but his application was turned down after a three-judge panel ruled that he had waited too long to do so.
He appeared in front of the High Court remotely from Castlerea Prison this morning, when he was given the chance to purge his contempt.
Judge Brian Cregan asked Burke whether he accepted the Court of Appeal’s decision in that case.
Burke responded by raising new issues with the latest DAP hearing, including claims that the chair of the panel had a conflict of interest and that he did not agree with the presence of a barrister and a solicitor at the hearing.
Judge Cregan dismissed this and then asked Burke three times whether he would agree not to breach the order to stay away from the grounds of Wilson’s Hospital School.
However, Burke again raised issues with the panel hearing that led to his dismissal being upheld.
“I am entitled to an independent chairperson of the DAP, and I say that [right] was flagrantly violated,” he said.
He criticised Judge Cregan for asking counsel for the school, Rosemary Mallon, to read the DAP’s 19-page report of panel hearing during previous proceedings in the High Court for “the guts of an hour”.
“That, Mr Burke, was an hour very well spent,” Judge Cregan replied, adding that the request helped him understand the grounds for the DAP’s decision.
Burke then claimed that the court could have risen to give Judge Cregan time to read the report in private.
“You wanted it read into the record so journalists and media could put out a bad report about me,” he told the judge.
Judge Cregan said this was ”ridiculous”, before asking Burke whether he would challenge or appeal the DAP’s decision to uphold his sacking.
“Those are all matters for me to consider and to make a decision on myself, but what I’m concerned about is your partiality,” Burke said.
“You may not like my decisions and my criticisms of you, but that’s a different matter,” Judge Cregan responded.
The judge then asked whether Burke for a third time whether he would give an undertaking to stay away from the school grounds.
When Burke continued to argue, his microphone was muted and the judge said he would continue to be imprisoned for a number of weeks.
Judge Cregan then asked counsel for the school, Rosemary Mallon, to prepare an affidavit that sets out “all the ways that Mr Burke has trespassed on the school” as well as details of how much he owes in various fines.
He asked that in a column on one side, an affidavit should detail the number of days Burke has appeared on the school’s grounds since Judge Brian O’Moore imposed a fine of €700 in January 2023 for each time he trespassed until his imprisonment in January this year.
He said that in a column on the other side, the same affidavit should detail the total amount that Burke owes in fines for trespassing.
Judge Cregan also asked for similar details in another affidavit from a receiver, appointed by the court to collect unpaid fines, including how much Burke had paid in fines as a result of a garnishee order that redirected his salary from the Department of Education.
Burke was then asked whether he had any observations on these requests.
The teacher once again criticised the DAP process and maintained that there had been no change to his employment status.
He accused the judge of “coaching and directing” counsel for the school to write affidavits and to include details within them.
Judge Cregan replied that his claim was “absolute nonsense” and said he wanted to know how much is owed in fines so that the court can monitor orders it has made.
When Burke said that there was no fine for refusing to use transgender pronouns in Ireland, the judge replied: “You keep arguing this point, but you never actually make it in a court of law at the appropriate time.”
Burke then accused the judge of “being partial” and “coaching” those who had taken proceedings against him, before once again being muted by the court’s registrar.
The case was adjourned until 24 June.
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