‘Oppression’: Enoch Burke spends last day of term outside school that sacked him and won’t rule out return in September as fines near €90,000

Mr Burke today made the trek from Castlebar in Co Mayo to the school in Multyfarnham in Co Westmeath for the final day of term despite a daily fine of €700 imposed upon him by the High Court on January 27.

The board of management of Wilson’s Hospital School secured orders against Mr Burke last August and September after he continued to show up “to work” at its premises despite being suspended pending the outcome of a disciplinary process. The High Court granted the school a permanent injunction last month prohibiting Mr Burke from entering onto its premises and awarded the school €15,000 in damages for trespass.

Burke, an evangelical Christian, had refused on religious grounds to comply with a request from the school’s then principal to call a transgender child by a new name and by “they/them” pronouns, clashing on a number of occasions with school management over the issue.

Mr Burke refused to comply with the court order, resulting in his imprisonment for 108 days last year for contempt. He was released just before Christmas, despite not purging his contempt, and renewed his daily visits to the school when it reopened in January.

He was sacked from his job later that month but has continued to turn up almost daily at the school, where he stays outside for the day before being picked up by his father and driven back to Castlebar.

‘People are silent in this country, they are afraid to stand up, they are afraid to open their mouths. That has to stop. That’s simply what I’m doing here’

“I’m here standing outside the school. I’ve been out here since January, I’ve been out here in freezing conditions, I’ve been out here in rain and sleet, and it’s because I have rights. No judge has the prerogative, or no principal, or anybody else, to take those rights away,” he told Independent.ie as he arrived this morning.

“People are silent in this country, they are afraid to stand up, they are afraid to open their mouths. That has to stop. That’s simply what I’m doing here. I have rights. Nobody has the prerogative to take those rights away, and what is happening in our courts is terrible,” he added.

Asked if he intended to come back in September to continue his attendance at the school, Mr Burke said he is still trying to process what has happened in relation to his work situation having been dismissed from Wilson’s Hospital School as a teacher.

“As it stands at the moment, it’s the last day of school here. I’m here, showing up for work. There is a disciplinary appeal panel meeting scheduled for Friday July 7 in Athlone. There’s no need for this at all. Somebody else is going to get loads of money, a panel of three I believe, there will be a long day of deliberating with different people as to whether the school acted rightly in getting rid of me for saying that I could not call a boy a girl, that I objected to being forced to accepting transgenderism,” he explained, adding that he should be going in to supervise exams this morning.

‘I have a belief that nobody in this country should have to pay for their beliefs, or indeed nobody in this country should have to pay for exercising their rights’

Asked about the fines €88,900 that have been imposed upon him since January 27 for contempt of court, he said he has made his position clear.

“I have a belief that nobody in this country should have to pay for their beliefs, or indeed nobody in this country should have to pay for exercising their rights,” he said.

Pushed on the issue of whether he would pay the fines or not, Mr Burke again skirted the issue and referred to a judgment on May 19 in the High Court by judge Alexander Owens, which found Wilson’s Hospital School behaved lawfully when it suspended him last August.

The decision left Mr Burke facing a six-figure legal bill, as the court said its provisional view was that he should pay the school’s costs.

Mr Justice Alexander Owens awarded the Co Westmeath school €15,000 in damages for trespass, which Mr Burke must pay in addition to the fines he has already amassed for defying a court order restraining him from going to the school premises.

The judge also dismissed a counterclaim the teacher had against the school in which he sought declarations that the disciplinary process against him was an unlawful interference with his constitutional rights.

His ruling came after a four-day hearing in March. Mr Burke was only present in court on the first day as the judge asked him to leave the court for being disruptive.

Mr Justice Owens said Mr Burke had been excluded for being “disorderly and in persistent contempt” of court.

The judge said that during the hearing Mr Burke was repeatedly contacted and advised that he was welcome to resume participation if he gave an undertaking to abide by the rulings of the court, but he chose not to respond or to make his intentions clear.

Mr Burke said: “We have a Constitution. We have a system of law, it’s laid down there. This is a very simple issue. Nobody should be penalised. It’s the multitude of punishments that can be used by a court or by a judge, like this man Judge Alexander Owens who behaved like a fairgoer in the court. I’ve never seen a judge behave the way he did. The way he conducted himself was absolutely abominable, it was detestable, right from the outset. That a judge like that can attempt to impose costs, fines, court orders, that’s oppressing the citizen when his rights should be given to him and should be vindicated when he walks into a courtroom,” Mr Burke said.