THE HIGH COURT will decide next week whether Martina and Ammi Burke were in contempt of court when they interrupted a case involving Enoch Burke last week.

Judge Brian Cregan warned Martina and Ammi Burke earlier this week that he was considering jailing them over their behaviour in his courtroom last Friday.

He then heard submissions from the two Burkes today about why they should not be imprisoned. 

The judge had separately asked the Attorney General last year to consider whether the three Burkes, along with another sibling Isaac Burke, were in criminal contempt of court for interrupting proceedings on a number of other occasions before Christmas.

However, AG Rossa Fanning ultimately decided not to bring charges against them.

Today, Judge Cregan said that he was initiating contempt proceedings after the pair were physically removed from his courtroom by gardaí on Friday.

During that hearing, Martina and Ammi Burke, Enoch’s mother and sister respectively, were present to support him in a case he had brought against members of a Disciplinary Appeals Panel (DAP) that was deciding whether he was unfairly dismissed by Wilson’s Hospital School.

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.

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 panel, Enoch, Martina and Ammi Burke began interrupting her.

Judge Cregan said today that he had begun contempt hearings because of Martina and Ammi’s “repeated shouting” and claims that “the [DAP] is still in existence” and that O’Brien “is still on the panel”.

The judge had suspended the hearing while Ammi and Martina Burke were physically removed from the courtroom by gardaí and Enoch Burke was returned to Mountjoy Prison, where he is imprisoned for defying a court order to stay away from Wilson’s.

Today, he asked Martina and Ammi Burke whether they wished to contest the characterisation of their behaviour as contempt of court, and whether they wanted to offer a defence or explanation for how they acted.

Enoch Burke appeared in court via video link, while Ammi and Martina Burke appeared in person with three other members of the Burke family.

‘Blot on administration of justice’

Martina Burke was invited to give her defence first, during which she questioned Judge Cregan’s claim that the Burkes had interfered with the administration of justice.

She spoke for around 15 minutes, during which she criticised Judge Cregan and other High Court judges who had presided over cases involving her son, and claimed Enoch’s case was about the protection of religious freedom under Article 44 of the constitution.

She described submissions by Sean Ó Longáin, a former member of the DAP, in an affidavit as a “blot on the administration of justice”, and claimed the decision to throw out Enoch’s case against the DAP was a “cover up”.

“You know that judge, but it saves you a lot of trouble if you cover it up,” she said.

At various points, other members of the Burke family who were present in court supported Martina’s submissions by saying “yes” and “amen”, or by repeating points she made.

She said that her son should not be in prison because he disagreed with the school’s request to address a transgender student by their preferred pronouns, though she was told by Judge Cregan that it was because he had breached the court’s order to stay away from its grounds.

“There’s blood that’s dripping from the hands of the judiciary today. Enoch Burke should not be in prison,” she said.

Martina Burke held a copy of the Irish constitution during her submissions, and waved it around to emphasise her submissions on a number of occasions.

At one point, Judge Cregan put it to her that the court also had to consider the school’s rights and said that Enoch Burke’s case did not centre solely on him.

“It’s simply that because your son and members of your family shout the loudest that all the attention is on your son… but the school is entitled to protection also,” he said.

Asked why Enoch Burke was justified in trespassing at the school, Martina Burke maintained that he was continuing to attend his place of work.

She again disagreed with the judge when he said Enoch Burke had been dismissed over his behaviour at a religious service held by the school in June 2022.

“He asked a question,” Martina Burke said.

“Thank God for freedom, we’re in a free country. That’s a lie, a conceited lie, because you don’t want to deal with the transgender issue. You’re sacrificing the people of this country, but they’re rising up, and they will stand for the truth”.

She closed her submissions by asking the judge “what kind of bench is this you’re sitting on”, before claiming that her son’s imprisonment is “a mockery of justice”.

‘Appalling abuse of power’

Ammi Burke was then invited to make her submissions, which she began by saying that throwing out the case last Friday was an “appalling abuse of power” by Judge Cregan.

“Last Friday you couldn’t wait to strike them out and that you did,” she said.

Ammi Burke repeated claims made by her mother that Judge Cregan “ignored” a submission by her brother about Ó Longáin’s affidavit and claimed that the judge and barristers in the case were acting together.

“I do see you all working very well together, the court and barristers. That’s what we’re seeing,” she said.

Judge Cregan put it to her that, as a trained solicitor and officer of the court, she should know that it is “completely unacceptable to interrupt a court hearing”.

Martina Burke then began shouting at the judge and accused him of “telling lies” while Ammi Burke made references to the constitutional right to religious freedom.

Referring to her brother Enoch, Ammi Burke told the judge: “You’ve defamed him, you’ve slandered him, you’ve treated him abominably. That’s what I know as a solicitor.”

Judge Cregan responded by saying that there was a clash of rights between Enoch Burke and the school that had to be dealt with by the courts, which was also a mechanism referred to in the constitution.

Ammi Burke denied this, before her mother interrupted again by repeatedly asking “Where’s transgender rights in the constitution?”

The judge ended the hearing by saying he would reserve judgment until next Wednesday, 4 March.

Legal costs

The contempt of court decision was one of three issues involving the Burkes that was before Judge Cregan today.

Earlier, the board of management of Wilson’s Hospital School asked the court to rule on costs in its ongoing case against Enoch Burke, rather than having the matter go to a legal costs adjudicator.

The board has brought a number of cases to the High Court seeking to prevent Burke from trespassing on its grounds in defiance of an injunction requiring him not to do so.

Counsel for the board Rosemary Mallon told the court that costs in the most recent of these cases, which was filed last September, now amounted to approximately €31,549.14.

Mallon said this did not include trainee solicitors’ hours and that legal counsel had given a voluntary 15% reduction on their figure.

However, Judge Cregan said the matter was not straightforward enough for costs to be determined by the High Court and referred the matter to a legal costs adjudicator.

The court also heard an application by Enoch Burke to refer an affidavit sworn by Disciplinary Appeals Panel (DAP) member Sean Ó Longáin to the Director of Public Prosections for perjury.

The teacher claimed that Ó Longáin, who has since resigned from the DAP, lied in an affidavit filed after the DAP met on 13 December to decide on whether Burke was unfairly dismissed by Wilson’s Hospital School.

Burke claimed that the panel had initially indicated that it had finished its hearing of his case on that date, but that Ó Longáin falsely claimed afterwards that the hearing would resume at a later date.

Counsel for Ó Longáin denied these claims and said the issue was “a classic ‘he said, she said’ situation” and “a fairly minor issue” in a case the High Court had struck out last week.

Judge Cregan said he would reserve judgment on Burke’s application for now, and that he would issue his decision in a written judgment later.