Enoch Burke receives his final payslip after formal sacking
Enoch Burke has received his last payslip after being formally sacked, the High Court has heard.
However, he will remain in prison after again refusing to promise to stay away from his former school.
His case came under review by Judge Brian Cregan yesterday, with a typically argumentative Burke addressing the court via videolink from Castlerea Prison.
Enoch Burke. Pic: Colin Keegan, Collins, Dublin
Kane Kavanagh-Baer, barrister for the Department of Education, said Enoch Burke had been removed from the department’s payroll on May 28 and had received his last payslip.
The court had been told last month that the history and German teacher was formally dismissed for gross misconduct after a Disciplinary Appeal Panel (DAP) rejected his appeal against his original dismissal in January 2023.
The DAP said the grounds for a review of that dismissal were ‘not made out’ in circumstances where a panel hearing did not go ahead because of his disruptive behaviour.
Enoch Burke. Pic: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
Burke was dismissed following his reaction to being asked to call a transgender student by a new name and the pronoun ‘they’, which he said was against his Christian beliefs.
The two previous three-member panels were disbanded following court actions by Burke, who had alleged bias on the part of representatives of the teaching union ASTI.
Separately, the Court of Appeal last month dismissed Burke’s bid to bring a late challenge to a High Court judgment that found he was validly suspended from his job.
Enoch Burke. Pic: Tom Honan
That May 2023 judgment from Judge Alexander Owens also saw Burke banned from trespassing at the school.
His refusal to obey that court order has resulted in him, as of today, spending 700 days in jail, as well as racking up tens of thousands of euros in fines – some of which have been paid directly from his salary.
Judge Cregan has now asked the school, the Department of Education, and a receiver to ascertain how many times Burke had trespassed, whether a €15,000 trespass damages award had been paid, and how much in trespass fines he still owes.
‘I want to be aware now what the total level of fines are so that the court can monitor its orders,’ he explained.
When Burke complained there was no fine for refusing to use transgender pronouns in Ireland, the judge replied: ‘You keep arguing this point, but you never actually make it in a court of law at the appropriate time.’
Burke said yesterday he wrote to the school’s board of management last week, saying he did not accept his dismissal was lawful and it was not possible for him to accept the opinion of the DAP.
He told the court the DAP process was ‘unlawful’ and ‘flies in the face of natural justice and fair procedures’.
He complained of an alleged conflict of interest on the part of the DAP chairperson, solicitor Claire Callinan, because she also chaired the disciplinary panel of the Church of Ireland, and Wilson’s Hospital School was a Church of Ireland School.
‘There has been no change in my status as a full-time permanent teacher of German and history at Wilson’s Hospital School,’ he insisted. However, he did not confirm if he planned to bring a legal challenge against the DAP decision.
He said he did not agree with the Court of Appeal judgment, adding he will ‘never accept’ his Christian beliefs ‘can be set forward as gross misconduct’.
Judge Cregan asked Burke if he was prepared to give a court undertaking not to trespass at Wilson’s Hospital School.
Burke did not answer the question, but claimed the judge engaged in a ‘display of partiality’ last month by asking the school’s lawyers to read on to the court record the DAP’s report effectively dismissing his challenge.
‘You could have risen to read it. You wanted it read into the public record. You wanted the assembled journalists to put out a bad report about me. That is what you wanted. It was a flagrant abuse of court time,’ said Burke.
Judge Cregan responded that his comments were ‘ridiculous’ and justice must be administered in public. He also said he had needed an understanding of the grounds on which his challenge was dismissed or not proceeded with.
Asked if he was going to challenge the Court of Appeal’s decision, Burke said that was a matter for him to consider.
Noting his continued refusal to purge his contempt, the judge said that his imprisonment should continue.
He said the former teacher could be released from prison today if he gave the undertaking, but that otherwise he would have to remain in prison ‘for the time being’. He said he would review the matter in three weeks’ time.
