Minister for Transport may be joined as party to Enoch Burke proceedings

The High Court is considering joining the Minister for Transport as a party to the dispute between Enoch Burke and Wilson’s Hospital School, in an effort to ascertain the owner of a car used by the dismissed teacher to travel to the school. Judge Brian Cregan previously directed the sequestration of the car, used by Burke to go to and from the Co Westmeath school in breach of a court order banning him from the premises. Burke, in correspondence to the court, has said he is not the owner of the car. Burke has been imprisoned and fined and faced sequestration of assets over his repeated breaches of the order banning him from the school, made more than three years ago by Judge Alexander Owens. READ MOREBurke has not attended at the school since Cregan made orders last month ordering his attachment and committal to Mountjoy Prison for contempt. The judge recently amended the order, stipulating that Burke only be arrested if he attends within 100m of the school. Burke was formally dismissed from his position at the school in May for gross misconduct. He maintains he was not validly dismissed and continues to seek his reinstatement through the courts.The school suspended and later dismissed Burke over his conduct towards its then-principal, Niamh McShane, at a school religious event in June 2022.The confrontation arose in circumstances where McShane had earlier directed teachers to address a student by a new name and with the pronouns “they” and “them”.Burke, an evangelical Christian, has maintained this request went against his religious beliefs.When he continued to trespass at the school following his suspension, the school sought court orders banning Burke from the premises.At a hearing on Thursday, Cregan made directions relating to an earlier sequestration order in respect of a car used by Burke to travel to Wilson’s Hospital School. The judge said there was a question around the ownership of the car. He asked the school’s solicitors, Mason, Hayes & Curran, to write to Burke to ask him who the owner of the car is. The judge said that if this information is not forthcoming, he indicated he would join the Minister for Transport to the proceedings. The Minister has jurisdiction over car registrations, the court heard.Once the owner of the car is ascertained, a question may arise over whether the owner has aided and abetted Burke’s contempt of court, the judge noted. Burke was not represented at Thursday’s hearing.The case returns in two weeks.