ENOCH BURKE HAS been ordered back to prison after interrupting the latest court hearing of his case against a panel that is deciding on whether his dismissal was fair.

The case came before the High Court this morning, when the board of management of Wilson’s Hospital School sought to be joined as a notice party in a case Burke has brought against the Disciplinary Appeals Panel (DAP).

Burke has sought an injunction to stop the DAP from issuing its findings about whether he was fairly or unfairly dismissed by the school.

He also wants to prevent the panel from holding any more meetings, and has taken issue with how the panel met to hear his case in December and the fact that ASTI representative Geraldine O’Brien comprises one of its three members.

Burke appeared in person this morning with his brother Isaac, his sister Ammi and his mother Martina.

Judge Brian Cregan warned at the outset of the hearing that proceedings would be adjourned and that Burke would be returned to Mountjoy Prison if he strayed beyond what were regarded as “acceptable submissions” or if his family interrupted.

Burke objected to the school’s board of management joining the proceedings, accusing solicitors for the board of “lying and prevarication” in separate legal cases they have been involved in with him.

He described the board as a “foreign presence in the court” and said they had not been involved in other cases he had brought against the DAP.

At one point, Burke began interrupting and claimed that a letter being read by Counsel for the school’s board of management Rosemary Mallon was not a valid legal submission.

His mother Martina and sister Ammi began shouting at Judge Cregan and Mallon, and were physically removed from the courtroom by gardaí.

Burke described their removal from court as “absolutely disgraceful” and said he had “an entitlement to justice” while being handcuffed and removed from the courtroom.

The court rose for 15 minutes, and Judge Cregan confirmed that the proceedings would resume at 12pm when Burke would appear remotely from Mountjoy Prison.

Dispute

The letter that was being read in court by Mallon which prompted Burke’s interruption had been sent to Burke and outlined why the school sought to be joined to the proceedings.

She said that it was in the interests of Burke and the DAP to hold a new hearing of the panel as soon as possible, and that the board would be affected by the outcome of that hearing.

The letter explained that a representative from a teachers’ union was required to appear on a DAP; the board chose someone from the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) because Burke is not part of a union, and the union represents the majority of teachers at the school.

However, Mallon said the board of management was open to nominating someone to the panel from the Teachers Union of Ireland, and could also seek the nomination of an independent member from the Law Society, the Bar Society or the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.