Burke has spent more than 700 days in jail across different spells over his contempt of court orders banning him from his former workplace, Wilson’s Hospital School, in Co Westmeath.
Judge Brian Cregan on Wednesday said he would release Enoch Burke notwithstanding his contempt of the court order, for reasons including the “material change” in circumstances arising from the recent refusal of Burke’s appeal against his dismissal from the school for gross misconduct.
The judge was sharply critical of Burke in a judgment ordering the teacher’s release, describing him as an “unwelcome intruder” intent on disrupting staff and pupils at his former school.
The school suspended and later dismissed Burke over his conduct towards then-principal Niamh McShane at a school religious event in June 2022.
The confrontation arose in circumstances where Ms McShane had earlier directed teachers to address a student by a new name and with the pronouns “they” and “them”.
Enoch Burke, an evangelical Christian, has maintained that this request went against his religious beliefs.
When he continued to trespass at the school following his suspension, the school sought court orders banning him from the premises.
Burke has continuously breached the order banning him from the school, resulting in his attachment and committal to prison on several occasions.
Enoch Burke was formally let go from his position at the school in May after a disciplinary appeals panel threw out his appeal against his dismissal from the school.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Cregan said that it was clear Mr Burke was an “unwelcome intruder” at the school “intent on causing as much disruption to the education of its young pupils as he can, in his campaign against transgenderism”.
The judge said Enoch Burke was entitled to his religious views and was entitled to turn up at the school gates and protest his dismissal.
“However, what he is not allowed to do is trespass upon the school property, enter the school corridors, disrupt the education of the pupils, try to bully and berate security guards, and disobey court orders. These are the actions of a teacher who has completely lost his moral compass,” the judge said.
He added: “Mr Burke makes much of the fact that his conscience will not let him call a pupil by their preferred pronoun. Yet his conscience seems undisturbed when he deliberately disrupts his pupils’ education and undermines the proper functioning of the school.”
Despite these criticisms, and notwithstanding Mr Burke’s repeated refusal to give an undertaking not to trespass at the school, the judge ordered Enoch Burke’s release from prison.
Outlining the reasons for Mr Burke’s release, the judge noted a “material change” in circumstances arising from a disciplinary appeals panel’s decision to refuse Burke’s appeal to his dismissal from the school.
Burke has now exhausted the internal appeals process in respect of his employment at the school, his dismissal has been confirmed, and the Department of Education has ceased paying his salary, the judge noted.
“Absent any legal proceedings which might be brought by Mr Burke in respect of his dismissal, this dispute is now at an end and it is appropriate to release Mr Burke,” the judge said.
The judge said Burke’s reasoning for continuing to show up at the school was his insistence that he was still an employee at the school, and that he had a duty to show up and teach, and that this would remain the case until the completion of the appeals process.
“It is now clear that this hopeless fiction is at an end. In those circumstances, it should be clear to Mr Burke that he has now reached the end of the road of the internal disciplinary procedures and that his position as a teacher in this school is now permanently at an end,” the judge said.
The judge also said Burke’s release is unlikely to cause great disruption at the school between now and September, given it is closed for summer break.
The judge said that if Burke returns to the school for the new academic year, the school can bring a new application to have Burke committed to prison.
In the circumstances, the judge said Burke should be released. The judge noted that Burke is still in contempt of the court order restraining his trespassing at the school and will remain so until he purges that contempt.
“Whilst Mr Burke is perfectly entitled to his own religious views, he is not entitled to his own truth. Every time Mr Burke says that he is in prison because of his opposition to transgenderism, that is a clear falsehood ... The truth is Mr Burke is in prison because he is trespassing on school property,” the judge said.
“Mr Burke is entitled to his religious views on transgenderism. He is free to shout those views from the rooftops – so long as he remains outside the school gates and does not trespass and disrupt the education of the young pupils at the school,” he concluded.
The judge said he would rule later in the month on the calculation of fines accrued by Burke over the course of his dispute with the school.
He also said he would give further time to three of Mr Burke’s family members – brother Isaac, mother Martina and sister Ammi – to make submissions on a potential order banning them from attending court hearings in person.
The trio have been removed from several hearings in Burke’s various lawsuits on account of disruptive behaviour.