Enoch Burke returned to Mountjoy Prison for contempt of High Court direction

Teacher Enoch Burke has been jailed for contempt by the High Court, after being arrested this morning at Wilson’s Hospital School.

Mr Burke was jailed for contempt of court for the fifth time, and will now extend the 560 days he has served in prison since September 2022.

Mr Justice Brian Cregan released Mr Burke from prison last Wednesday to prepare his legal challenge for a Disciplinary Appeals Panel hearing against his dismissal from the school.

This morning Mr Justice Cregan directed the schoolteacher to return to Mountjoy Prison, for a “flagrant breach” of a court order.

Last Friday Mr Burke spoke to the Examiner describing the judges decision to release him to prepare for his dismissal hearing as “absurd” adding that he did not need to be released to prepare for the case.

Mr Burke insisted he was at his workplace: “This is my workplace. I am a teacher here,” he said at the gate of Wilson's Hospital. “It's absurd that I was let out, only to be returned to prison. I should never have been in prison in the first place.”

He was brought before Mr Justice Cregan this morning for further breaches of an injunction restraining him from the premises of the Multyfarnham school.

Mr Burke attended the school this morning, the third time since his release, along with his brother Isaac.

At the High Court hearing Rosemary Mallon BL, the barrister representing the school’s board of management, read an affidavit from the school’s principal, Noel Cunningham. In the affidavit Mr Cunningham said Mr Burke arrived at the school on Thursday and Friday mornings and was stopped walking up to the school by the private security guard employed by the school.

Mr Burke, who is an Evangelical Christian, taught German and history at the school. He argues that the direction was unconstitutional and went against his right to express his religious beliefs.