Enoch Burke has appeared at the gates of Wilson’s Hospital School – the day after he was released from Mountjoy Prison.
The High Court was told of this on Thursday morning, and as a result, Rosemary Mallon BL, for the school, asked Mr Justice Brian Cregan, who released Mr Burke from prison on Wednesday, for permission to mention the case again on Thursday when she will present an affidavit outlining what had happened.
The judge said he had been reflecting on the matter overnight and it appeared the school might have to bring a fresh motion to attach and commit Mr Burke to prison again.
He said he would hear this afternoon an application by Ms Mallon for short service of that motion along with the update on what happened today.
Mr Burke was released from prison by the judge to allow him the opportunity to prepare for a new case he is bringing related to his dismissal from the school over his conduct when he refused to call a transgender student by a new name or use the they/them pronoun.
On Wednesday, a High Court judge said he should be released to prepare for a case launched against an appeals body due to review his dismissal from the Westmeath school.
Speaking to journalists, supporters and protesters gathered outside the school on Thursday, Mr Burke said: “I’m coming here to do a day’s work, that’s what I’ve always done.
“I should never have been in prison in the first place, this is my work place, this is where I teach.”
Mr Burke has been in jail since late November for breaches of a court order directing him not to trespass at Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath, where he worked as a teacher.
Last week, he sought a temporary injunction against a disciplinary appeals body tasked with reviewing his dismissal from the school.
Before the High Court on Wednesday, Mr Justice Brian Cregan said Mr Burke had raised “substantive” and “credible” issues in papers prepared against the Disciplinary Appeals Panel (DAP).
The judge said he was directing that Mr Burke be released from prison for “one reason and one reason only”, in the interest of the administration of justice and so that he has time to prepare for his case against the DAP.
The judge had said the decision was being made on the basis that he would not attend the school and he would be brought back to prison if he did.
Mr Burke rejected the reasons given by the judge for his release when he appeared before the court via videolink and as he walked out of Mountjoy Prison on Wednesday.
He repeated his comments again at the school gates on Thursday and in a tirade against the Irish judicial system and media he accused the “judges in this country” of “telling lies”.
He said his case was an “insult from beginning to end” to the “institutions of our State” and a “disgrace”.
He said he was brought to court because he “simply could not” address a pupil using the pronoun “they”, saying it was “anti Christian, but as well as that, it is nonsense”.