Sacked teacher Enoch Burke turns up outside Wilson’s Hospital School again

Enoch Burke turned up to his old school again for the start of the new academic year on Thursday.Burke was sacked as a teacher by Wilson’s Hospital School in May after a lengthy court battle.Burke has spent more than 700 days in jail and racked up fines of €280,000 in fines for defying court orders not to turn up to the school. He still owes €208,000 in fines. The Co Westmeath school suspended – and later dismissed – Burke over his conduct towards the then-principal Niamh McShane at a school religious event in June 2022.READ MOREThe disagreement arose in circumstances where McShane had earlier requested teachers to address one teenage student by a new name and to use the pronouns “they” and “them”.Burke, an evangelical Christian, has maintained that this request went against his religious beliefs.Burke outside the entrance to the school on Thursday. Photograph: Garrett White/Collins Thereafter, the school successfully sought court orders banning him from the premises, which he continuously breached.Burke was released from Castlerea Prison on July 1st despite his ongoing refusal to comply with a court order not to trespass at his former place of work.In his judgment, Judge Brian Cregan said that it was clear 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 Burke was entitled to his religious views and is 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.Photographs taken on Thursday show Burke walking past one of the buildings in the school. Burke has taken a fresh High Court challenge against a decision refusing to reinstate his employment at the school. He has been granted permission to bring judicial review proceedings against three members of the Disciplinary Appeals Board, the Minister for Education and the board of management of Wilson’s Hospital School. That case has been adjourned until October.