LAST UPDATE | 16 Jan

ENOCH BURKE IS due to be arrested and taken to prison for the fifth time after he returned to Wilson’s Hospital School this week.

The High Court has ordered that the former teacher should be arrested and brought before the court for breaching an order by trespassing at Wilson’s Hospital School.

The court heard that his appearance at the gates following his release two days ago was having a significant impact on the school.

Burke was not in court this afternoon.

A court order in place explicitly states the teacher must stay away from the Westmeath school.

Rosemary Mallon, a barrister representing the school’s board of management, told the court Burke had trespassed again on Friday morning.

Burke did not appear in court and Mallon said a secretary for Mason Hayes and Curran had confirmed she had emailed him, at his personal address, about the hearing and had not received a “bounce back”.

Speaking outside the school after the hearing, Burke said: “I teach here, I’m not trespassing.”

He added that he was there “to work”.

“Judge Cregan knew exactly what was going to happen today, and yesterday,” Burke told reporters.

Responding to questions, he described his potential return to prison as a “monstrosity”, adding “it’s a terrible place to be, in prison”.

Mallon said Burke’s presence at the school had caused an “unprecedented and significant impact on the work of the school”.

She said the school’s principal Noel Cunningham had to rearrange security at short notice, liaise with the security, address issues in the school which arose from students, parents and teachers dealing with protesters and contact the school’s solicitors at short notice.

“None of that is what a principal should be doing,” she added.

The judge made “an order of attachment” instructing Burke be brought to court on Monday to “give his version of events”.

It is at that hearing Judge Cregan will decide whether Mr Burke should be returned to prison.

He also instructed Mallon to submit an affidavit from the principal Mr Cunningham outlining the events of this week.

The High Court ­granted the school’s board of management committal proceedings against Burke at short ­notice by email yesterday.

The school’s latest application came only one day after Mr Justice Cregan freed Burke from Mountjoy “in the interests of justice” to allow him to prepare for his legal challenge against a Disciplinary Appeals Panel (DAP).

The judge, who jailed Burke before Christmas, on Wednesday said the teacher could be freed to give him time to prepare a legal case he has taken against an appeals board that is deciding on whether his sacking was fair. 

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Burke has taken the new case against the three-member Disciplinary Appeals Panel (DAP), which last met before Christmas to decide on whether he was fairly dismissed from his job.

The judge said Burke had raised “substantive” and “credible” issues against the panel.

At the time, Burke said he did not need to be released to prepare for the case. He made it clear to the judge he intended to defy the court order and return to his former employer’s site which he did yesterday, and again this morning.

He was prevented from entering the grounds by security personnel who had been hired specifically to block his attempts. 

“This is my workplace,” he told reporters yesterday. “This is where I work. This is what I’m faced with again this morning. Mr Justice Cregan knew well this morning that this is what I would be up against. He knew where I would be this morning and I would just say to people that it’s not true what Justice Cregan said yesterday that his motivations for letting me out. He knew where I would be. I should never have been in prison in the first place. This is where I teach. It’s a nonsense to say he let me out to focus. That’s an insult to the prison service and the people in prison.”

He has already spent 564 days in prison.

Burke was initially suspended from his role at the school in 2022.   

The school alleges he interrupted a religious service in its chapel in June of that year. He claims the school principal had made a “demand” that staff accept what he describes as “transgenderism” and that it was against his beliefs.

Contains reporting from Aoife Moore.