The High Court has jailed secondary school teacher Enoch Burke for a third time for breaching a court order.
Mr Justice Michael Quinn said he was satisfied Mr Burke was acting in breach of the permanent injunction granted a year ago and was in contempt of court.
He ordered him to be committed again to Mountjoy Prison until he purges his contempt.
The judge listed the matter again for 11 October but he said Mr Burke could come into court at any point if he wanted to purge his contempt.
Mr Burke told the judge he would answer to God for imprisoning someone for their religious beliefs.
Mr Burke has already spent more than 400 days in Mountjoy Prison on two previous occasions for failing to obey an injunction directing him to stay away from Wilson's Hospital School in Co Westmeath.
He was released in late June after the school closed for the summer holidays.
But the court heard he has been attending at the school again since it reopened last month.
Mr Burke was sacked from the school in January 2023 but he has appealed the dismissal and remains on full pay pending the hearing of the appeal.
The High court heard today that the disciplinary panel has not yet convened to hear the appeal, because legal proceedings by Mr Burke connected to the appeal are still before the Court of Appeal.
The court was told Mr Burke’s presence at the school since 22 August has been stressful for staff and disruptive for staff and students.
The acting principal John Galligan said in an affidavit that the presence of unknown third parties supporting Mr Burke outside the school posed safety concerns.
The chairman of the board of management, John Rogers, said he believed staff and students would continue to be affected adversely by Mr Burke’s attendance.
In his affidavit, he said very serious consideration had been given to employing security at the school but he could not countenance turning the school into a prison patrolled by private security guards.
The court heard Mr Burke was arrested on the grounds of the school this afternoon.
Barrister Rosemary Mallon, on behalf of the school, asked the court to jail him again.
She said that if he was not committed to prison, he would attend at the school again tomorrow morning.
Mr Burke said the court was denying his religious belief. He said he had been commanded by the former principal "to force transgenderism on students".
He said his students knew he was a man of integrity and he was not going to tell them he was doing that.
Mr Burke quoted from the Book of Genesis and said that the belief in male and female was at the heart of Christian belief.
Mr Burke said successive judges had refused to acknowledge the truth of what his case was about.
He told the judge he could imprison him, but he said the "truth can be trampled into the ground but it'll rise up again".
Mr Burke was asked by Judge Quinn if he intended to continue to act "in disregard" of the High Court order directing him to stay away from the school.
Mr Burke declined to give an undertaking.
The court was also told that a €700 daily fine imposed last year on Mr Burke for every day he remained in contempt of court had never been collected.
Ms Mallon said the difficulty was whether the school or the Courts Service was to collect the fines and how they were to be collected.
She said there was provision in the legislation only to collect fines imposed by courts in relation to the commission of criminal offences.
Judge Quinn said given that the order imposing a fine was a high court order, he was surprised further steps had not been taken in that regard.
The court also heard that Mr Burke's appeal against his dismissal has not yet been heard and the disciplinary appeal panel will not sit until separate legal proceedings by Mr Burke in relation to the panel are resolved by the Court of Appeal.
Mr Burke said the fact that he had appealed the dismissal meant it had not taken effect and he was still a teacher on the payroll of the school.
He was accompanied in court by his mother, Martina, father, Sean, sister Ammi and brothers Isaac and Josiah.
Martina, Sean and Josiah Burke all asked the judge to read the original principal's report grounding Mr Burke’s suspension from the school in August 2022.
They accused the judge of being afraid of reading it.