ENOCH BURKE HAS opened up a new front in his ongoing legal battle with Wilson’s Hospital School following confirmation of his dismissal earlier this summer.

The former teacher filed papers in the High Court on Tuesday to seek a judicial review of a decision by the school’s board of management in May this year to uphold his sacking.

That decision came after a Disciplinary Appeals Panel (DAP) met and recommended that his sacking in January 2023 should be upheld.

The papers filed in the High Court yesterday show that Burke has named the three members of the DAP, Claire Callanan, John Irwin, and Seamus Lahart, the Minister for Education and the Board of Management of Wilson’s Hospital School as co-defendants.

Burke was sacked after a dispute with the school’s management arising from his behaviour at a church service in the summer of 2022.

The school alleged that at the event, Burke said that his then-principal should withdraw a request for teachers to address a transitioning student by their preferred pronouns.

Burke is alleged to have approached the then-principal of the school, and to have questioned her loudly, prompting other people to stand between the two of them.

However, he has repeatedly argued that the direction to address the pupil by their preferred pronouns was unconstitutional and that it went against his religious beliefs.

Burke was initially suspended pending the disciplinary process, before being jailed after repeatedly turning up at the school in violation of a court order to refrain from trespassing on its grounds.

He spent more than 700 days in prison over five separate stints for violating the court’s order, and is also estimated to owe at least €260,000 in fines to the State for the same reason.

Three DAPs were formed to handle the case and review his dismissal before the most recent iteration agreed to uphold the decision by Wilson’s Hospital School in 2023.

Last week, Burke was released from prison for the fifth time by a High Court judge because the school is on holidays and a judge deemed that he could not cause disruption by trespassing there.

The former teacher has never purged his contempt of court, or given any undertaking that he would stay away from the school grounds.

Judge Brian Cregan said last week that the school’s board of management has made it clear they have no desire to see Burke reside in prison, but that they are wary that he may show up again on the school grounds when the new term begins. 

He said that if this were to be the case, the school could make a fresh application for his committal for being in breach of a court order.