Enoch Burke returns to Westmeath school gates a day after being released from prison
The High Court has been alerted to the fact teacher Enoch Burke returned to Wilson’s Hospital School, the day after he was released from Mountjoy Prison.On Wednesday, a 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 morning, 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 workplace, this is where I teach.”READ MOREThree Irish restaurants added to Michelin GuideThe Jacques Nienaber conundrum: What’s going on with Leinster’s defence?Does Grok believe it can legally generate intimate images of women in Ireland? ‘It’s important for ice hockey players to be clean!’ I jot down during Heated Rivalry’s shower sceneHowever, shortly afterwards, the High Court was told that Mr Burke had passed through the gates of the school. Barrister Rosemary Mallon, 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 afternoon when she will present an affidavit outlining what had happened.[ Enoch Burke leaves Mountjoy Prison after High Court orders release to prepare for hearingOpens in new window ]She said he had returned to the school and passed the gates. “There is a security man there and there is another problem as there were quite a number of protesters who also passed into the school premises,” she said. 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 an application on Thursday afternoon by Ms Mallon for short service of that motion along with the update on what happened.Mr Burke had 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.Enoch Burke at the front gates of the school on Thursday. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins 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 video-link 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”. – Additional reporting PA
