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MARTINA AND AMMI Burke are to be jailed for two weeks for contempt of court after interrupting a case involving Enoch Burke last month.

High Court judge Brian Cregan found the pair in contempt after they were physically removed from his courtroom last month by gardaí during the hearing of a case brought by Enoch Burke.

The judge also said he would contact the Law Society over the behaviour of Ammi Burke, who is a trained solicitor.

He further said that he is considering making an order that Martina Burke, Ammi Burke and another sibling, Isaac Burke, can only attend future hearings involving Enoch Burke remotely.

Martina and Ammi Burke were not in court today to hear the decision, but the judge has made an order for their committal.

Isaac Burke, who attended court in a personal capacity, told the judge that his mother and sister were at their place of employment.

In a 30-page judgment issued this morning, Judge Cregan said the interruptions were 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.”

‘Astonishing’ interruptions

The contempt findings today 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.

Enoch Burke had taken issue with the inclusion on the panel of Geraldine O’Brien, a representative of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI), because he alleged she would be biased against him.

Judge Cregan warned at the start of the hearing that if the family interrupted, or if Enoch Burke’s submissions or conduct strayed beyond “acceptable behaviour”, he would suspend proceedings.

However, 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 today 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”.

“There is no case in the Chancery list – apart from that of Mr Burke – where I have had to rise on each and every occasion when the Burke cases are before the court and ask the gardaí to remove members of the Burke family,” the judge wrote.

“The behaviour of the Burkes therefore is truly exceptional and has to be seen to be believed.”

Contempt hearing

The case resumed last week, 25 February, when Judge Cregan heard submissions from Martina and Ammi Burke about why they had interrupted and refused to comply with the directions of the court, causing the 20 February hearing to be abandoned.

Martina Burke spoke for around 20 minutes, during which she claimed that Enoch had been unjustly imprisoned and denied his constitutional rights.

Judge Cregan said this was not true, and that Enoch was suspended for gross misconduct and had been imprisoned for breaching a court order to stay away from the grounds of Wilson’s Hospital School.

He wrote in his judgment today that Martina Burke “complained bitterly” that Enoch had been imprisoned for over 600 days, something the judge said “should be a badge of shame”.

He also said that Martina Burke repeatedly shouts “free Enoch Burke” but that he can free himself if he indicates that he will not appear on the grounds of the school.

“If Mrs Burke really wants to free Enoch Burke, she could do so herself,” Judge Cregan said.

“I have no doubt that she could persuade her son to change the disastrous course of action that he has embarked upon.”

He said that despite trying to make this point to Martina Burke, “there is simply no reasoning with her or any member of the Burke family”.

“They are impervious to reason. Theirs is a faith-driven ideology which refuses to accept the rule of law. So be it. The rule of law applies to them whether they accept it or not,” Judge Cregan wrote.

The judge found that Martina Burke’s defence about her son were no defence to her contempt charge and were “completely irrelevant”.

He said courts “cannot continue in the absolute certainty” that the Burkes would continue to interrupt proceedings, and said it is “completely abnormal” that up to ten gardaí need to be present in courtrooms when they appear.

“I cannot think of any other case in the last 30 years where this has happened,” Judge Cregan said.

‘Lost all sense of professional propriety’

Judge Cregan also summarised submissions by Ammi Burke from last week’s hearing, in which she said that she was protesting a decision to strike out Enoch Burke’s proceedings against the DAP as moot as “an appalling abuse of power”.

He described Ammi Burke’s submissions as “manifestly absurd” and said that they showed that, as a solicitor, she “has simply lost all sense of professional propriety”.

The judge further noted that Ammi’s protests on 20 February began at 10.44am, but that his decision to strike out the case happened around 12.50pm, long after she was removed from court by gardaí.

He also rejected a submission she made claiming that counsel for Wilson’s board of management, Rosemary Mallon, should not be joined to proceedings brought by Enoch Burke against the DAP because “the school was opposed to her brother”.

“Clearly Ms Burke is unapologetic and defiant about her behaviour,” the judge said.

“It is clear that what Ms Burke sought to do was to interrupt the court proceedings so that that application could not be heard and determined by the court. It is the very essence of an interference with the administration of justice.”

‘Family circus’

Judge Cregan then summarised by saying that both Martina and Ammi Burke both knew they had no right of audience in the court on 20 February, but that they continued “shouting and roaring at the top of their voices” regardless.

He said the hearing eventually “descended into chaos” and that the pair had no right to shout inside a courtroom. 

The judge said the Burkes believed the law did not apply to them, and that the question was whether they should be exempt from the law because they are Christian evangelicals.

“The question only has to be stated in these terms to realise the answer is definitely no,” he said.

The judge said there was no exemption to the law for Christian evangelicals, climate change activists, animal rights activists, or anti-abortion protesters and that the law applies equally to anyone who deliberately interrupts court proceedings.

He further said that Martina, Ammi and Enoch Burke are “not exceptional”, but are “just exceptionally unable to accept what every other citizen in this republic accepts every day” – that the law applies to them.

The judge then said that both Ammi and Martina Burke should each be sentenced to two weeks each in prison for contempt of court.

He also said that he would contact a relevant disciplinary committee of the Law Society about whether Ammi Burke should be disciplined over her behaviour, noting that she “completely lost sight” of her ethical and professional duties.

“I have never encountered a solicitor who has behaved in this way,” Judge Cregan said.

“In my view, Ms Burke’s behaviour is disgraceful and indefensible, particularly given that she is a trained solicitor.”

Judge Cregan then said he would consider making an order that Martina Burke, Ammi Burke and Isaac Burke should not be permitted to attend any further hearings involving Enoch in person, and that they should only attend future hearings remotely.

He said the wider behaviour of the Burkes in court had turned the courtroom from a “stressful environment into a toxic environment”.

“It is long past time for the court to call a halt to this family circus,” he said.

The judge said the Burkes would have three weeks to make objections, and that he would consider the matter then.

Heated exchanges

Following Judge Cregan’s ruling, Isaac Burke began shouting in the courtroom, saying: “We are Christians. It is not acceptable to bring into these proceedings our Christian beliefs in a pejorative way.”

Enoch Burke, who appeared remotely, also said his imprisonment was “not a badge of shame” and that he and his family “have a right to freedom of religion”.

The court rose briefly, before resuming to hear other matters involving Enoch Burke and the DAP.

There were heated exchanges between Judge Cregan and Enoch Burke during those proceedings when Enoch Burke criticised the earlier judgment regarding his mother and sister as “fearful and nefarious”.

When Enoch Burke told the judge “you will give an account to God”, Judge Cregan repeatedly told him “don’t threaten me Mr Burke”.

Enoch Burke then said his mother and sister were “guilty of nothing but speaking the truth” before the judge ordered his microphone to be muted, adding “Mr Burke, you’re just wasting my time”.

Later, Enoch Burke claimed that the court had been guilty of a “false balance” which told Judge Cregan was “an abomination to God, the God that you have mocked this morning”.

“I did not mock God at all,” Cregan responded. “Don’t even try to pretend that I did.”