Enoch Burke’s salary to be paid direct to school awarded damages against him

Enoch Burke’s salary is to be paid to Wilson’s Hospital School as he still owes them 15,000 euro in damages, a court has ordered.

Mr Burke appeared before the High Court via video link from Mountjoy Prison where he has been since Tuesday, after Mr Justice Brian Cregan ordered him to be jailed for “repeated and flagrant” breaches of court orders on November 18.

Mr Burke and his family, who are evangelical Christians from Co Mayo, are embroiled in a lengthy legal row with Wilson’s Hospital School, where Mr Burke formerly worked as a teacher.

The row stems from incidents at the Co Westmeath school over a request in 2022 from the then-principal that a student be addressed by a new name and pronoun.

Since then, Mr Burke has repeatedly trespassed on school property, breaching a court order.

The court heard that although Mr Burke has been dismissed from the school on the grounds of gross misconduct, he is still being paid a teacher’s salary from the Department of Education and Youth, pending an appeal before the Disciplinary Appeals Panel.

In August 2023, the school was awarded damages of 15,000 euro for trespass on their grounds but, on Friday, Mr Justice Cregan said Mr Burke had “not paid a single euro of this judgment”.

He granted the school a garnishee order, where a debtor’s salary is paid directly to the person owed, on the grounds Mr Burke “owes a considerable debt to the school”.

Mr Justice Cregan also said he was “satisfied” the court has the power to confiscate vehicles which Mr Burke used to access the school describing his actions as “flagrant breaches of the court order”.

However, he said as Mr Burke is currently in prison “it is not necessary to sequester these vehicles at this time”, but said the measure could be considered again at a future date.

But the hearing at the Four Court in Dublin was disrupted by Enoch Burke’s father, Sean, and brother, Dr Isaac Burke, before it even began.

Mr Burke was due to appear by video link, but technical difficulties meant his appearance was delayed.

As the delay continued, Dr Burke remonstrated with the judge saying that as Enoch Burke was not appearing in person, he had “no advocate” in court and “no one to hand up documents”.

Mr Justice Cregan told him he “did not intend” to allow him, or his father, to remain in court and asked them both to leave saying they had “no right of audience”.

Telling them: “Every time you have appeared before me, you have disrupted the court.”

Dr Burke began to shout that this was “absolutely disgraceful”, “shocking” and “unjust behaviour”.

Five uniformed gardai entered the court and two escorted Dr Burke out of the room.

Mr Burke senior then, too, began shouting, saying: “I’m a member of the public, I have a right to be here. This is totally unjust, this is totally wrong, this is absolutely wrong”.

He, too, was led away from the court as Mr Justice Cregan rose and adjourned the hearing.

When the video link was establish Enoch Burke himself brought up the issue of his method of appearance, saying he was greatly “disadvantaged” by not appearing in person.

He accused the school’s barrister Rosemary Mallon of “underhand dealings”, claiming he was originally supposed to appear in person but she had his production order changed so that he would appear by video link.

He claimed she had the “ear of the court”.

In response Ms Mallon said: “No good deed goes unpunished.”

She said she had requested Mr Burke be produced by video link out of “fairness” to him as there had been no production order for him and she was “concerned” he would not be produced.

Mr Burke claimed this was not true and said “the court needs to be truthful” to which Mr Justice Cregan responded: “I will not take any lectures on truth-telling from you.”

In his judgment Mr Justice Cregan said Mr Burke would be released from prison if he promises not to trespass on the school’s property again saying: “He does not have to accept transgenderism.

“He does not have to stop protesting against transgenderism. He does not have to change his religious beliefs one iota.”