MARTINA AND AMMI Burke have been released from the Dóchas Centre prison in Dublin this morning.

It comes after High Court judge Brian Cregan found the pair in contempt of court and ordered them to prison for two weeks each in early March. They were arrested by gardaí at Castlerea Prison on the 31 March.

The judge made the finding after the pair were physically removed from his courtroom during proceedings involving Enoch Burke and Wilson’s Hospital School.

Speaking to reporters, including the Irish Independent, outside the Dóchas Centre today, Martina Burke said she and her daughter would “continue to fight”.

“They put us in here to silence us, to shut us up, to silence us. It’s a scandal,” she said.

She said the “the silence of the church” is also a scandal.

She also alleged the Dóchas is “overcrowded”. “Prisoners on the floor and Judge Brian Cregan send us in there for two weeks. They could do without that. They’re on the floor already.”

The Irish Prison Service said it is required to accept into custody all persons committed to prison by the Courts and has no role in determining the number of people sent to custody at any given time.

“Where the number of people in custody exceeds the maximum capacity in any prison, the Irish Prison Service makes every effort to manage this safely, including the use of Temporary Release where appropriate. All decisions on Temporary Release are taken on a case‑by‑case basis and the safety of the public is paramount.”

Gardaí had made attempts to arrest the pair at their place of residence in Castlebar before 31 March, but could not locate them.

Contempt of court

The contempt findings relate to proceedings on Friday 20 February, in a case brought by Enoch Burke against members of the Disciplinary Appeals Panel (DAP) that was deciding whether he was unfairly dismissed by Wilson’s Hospital School.

When Rosemary Mallon, counsel for the board of management of Wilson’s Hospital School, read a letter in which O’Brien had given an undertaking not to appear on a future iteration of the DAP, Enoch, Martina and Ammi Burke began interrupting.

Ammi and Martina claimed that “the panel is still in existence” and that “Geraldine O’Brien is still on the panel” and had not resigned.

Judge Cregan said in his ruling earlier this month that he found this behaviour “astonishing” and that their shouting was “so loud and vociferous that I simply could not be heard” when directing the court to rise.

He said that even when he left the court after ordering Martina and Ammi Burke be attached to the case for contempt of court charges, he could continue to hear “continuous shouting and roaring as they were removed”.

The judge said the interruptions amounted to a “paradigmatic case of contempt of court”.

He said it was clear that members of the Burke family, including Enoch, Ammi and Martina, believed “that they are above the law and that the law does not apply to them”.

“There comes a time when the court must then move to consider contempt of court proceedings against them,” he said.

“That time is long overdue.”