Court says teacher’s ‘verbal aggression, unregulated anger and lack of self-control’ makes him a potential danger to pupils
In a judgment delivered today, Mr Justice Brian Cregan excoriated Mr Burke for his behaviour at the school, which he described as “grotesque” and part of a “fanatical campaign against transgenderism”.
“He is a baleful and malign presence, an intruder, stalking the school, its teachers and its pupils,” the judge said.
Mr Justice Cregan also described Mr Burke’s behaviour in court as a deliberate strategy of “confrontation, verbal aggression and bullying”.
The judge made a committal order against Mr Burke with immediate effect.
The teacher has previously spent three separate periods totalling 513 days in jail and been fined €225,000 for contempt. None of the fines were willingly paid and he has repeatedly refused to comply with court orders.
Enoch Burke.
Mr Justice Cregan also directed the Attorney General to bring criminal contempt proceedings against Mr Burke, his mother Martina and siblings Ammi and Isaac over their behaviour in his courtroom.
Several members of the family were ejected from recent hearings after engaging in loud and argumentative interruptions.
The judge said the case had involved “the most deliberate, sustained and concerted attack” in recent times on the authority of the courts and the rule of law.
He said the Burkes had no right to engage in the verbal abuse of a judge and that it was clear their actions were “concerted, organised and systematic” and “occur in hearing after hearing”.
It was “astonishing”, the judge said, that on every occasion Mr Burke was before the courts, gardaí had to present to “protect members of the judiciary and/or registrars against outbursts” and to ensure hearings can proceed.
Mr Burke, the judge said, had without justification accused him and a barrister of lying.
“He does so to deflect and distract from his own lies,” Mr Justice Cregan said.
Neither Mr Burke nor members of his family were in court for the delivery of the judgment.
The teacher was again at the Co Westmeath school, in defiance of an injunction restraining him from the property.
Today’s News in 90 – Tuesday November 18
Mr Burke’s row with the school dates back to May 2022 when, on religious grounds, he refused to comply with a request to call a transgender student by a new name and they/them pronouns. He was a teacher of history and German at the time and comes from a family of well-known evangelical Christians from Castlebar, Co Mayo.
Mr Burke was sacked in January 2023 over incidents in which he publicly confronted the then principal about the request. He is challenging his dismissal at an appeals board and still considers the school his “place of work”.
The school’s board of management sought Mr Burke’s attachment and committal for a fourth time in September after he resumed coming to its grounds following the summer holidays.
Mr Justice David Nolan, who heard the application, was not persuaded to do so and instead urged the school to hire security to keep him out.
However, the application was revived by Mr Justice Cregan when he heard Mr Burke was still coming to the school despite the presence of security.
In a 50-page ruling, the judge said the teacher was “an utterly intransigent litigant who is so blinkered in his approach to all issues that he believes that only he is right and that everybody else is wrong”.
Mr Justice Cregan said far too much attention had been focussed on Mr Burke and not enough on the children and teachers in the school.
Mr Burke’s trespassing undermined the work of teachers to nurture, protect and educate pupils, the judge said.
He said Mr Burke would rather the school spent €1,000 per week on security rather than on the needs of pupils.
“This then is the grotesque behaviour of a teacher who puts his own ridiculous sense of himself above the needs of his pupils. It is clear that Mr Burke is willing to sacrifice the pupils of the school on the altar of his fanatical campaign against transgenderism,” the judge said.
“There is something deeply unsettling about Mr Burke’s presence at the school. He doesn’t just trespass onto the school grounds; he goes right into the heart of the school, roaming around its corridors when he has no right to do so. “
Mr Burke, the judge said, was engaged in a deliberate strategy of confrontation.
“Confront the principal; confront the bishop; confront the school; confront the security guards; confront the courts. His verbal aggression in the school was one of the reasons for his dismissal for gross misconduct,” the judge said.
“His verbal aggression towards this court, was, in my experience, unprecedented.”
Mr Burke and other members of his family “appear to suggest that somehow they have a greater moral right or greater moral authority than the courts to assert their rights, or that they have a God-given right to do what they do,” the judge said.
“This is simply not true, either as a matter of law, or as a matter of political and constitutional theory. This court will not take any lessons in religion from Mr Burke or any of the Burke family.
“Neither Mr Burke nor any other members of his family have any monopoly on Christian values or on the Bible. Perhaps Mr Burke should spend more time reflecting on Jesus’s words in the Sermon on the Mount: ‘Do onto others as you would have them do onto you’.”
Referring to a hearing where Mr Burke told the judge to “wipe that smirk off your face”, Mr Justice Cregan said the use of such an expression towards a judge of the High Court was “not normal behaviour”.
“It shows that Mr Burke has an unbridled tongue and clearly has difficulty in regulating his anger. He could say anything, at any time, to a teacher or pupil and spark an incident,” the judge said.
“This level of verbal aggression, unregulated anger and lack of self-control, combined with his deliberate strategy of confrontation, make him a potential danger to pupils and teachers of the school.”
The teacher has repeatedly and claimed he was jailed and fined because of his opposition to “transgenderism”. Mr Justice Cregan said this simply was not true.
“It needs to be restated clearly by this court – as has been stated clearly by previous courts – that Mr Burke has not been imprisoned or fined for his views on transgender issues, which he is perfectly entitled to have and to articulate,” the judge said.
“Mr Burke has been imprisoned, and fined, for contempt of court, because he has breached court orders directing him not to trespass on school property.”
Mr Justice Cregan said Mr Burke had engaged in “a deliberately mendacious campaign full of misinformation and disinformation”.
The judge referred to a video posted on Mr Burke’s X account of a stand-off between him and a security guard on the school grounds last month. In the video, Mr Burke said: “I have a right to be here. I’m not trespassing. I am entitled to be here.”
But the judge said: “It is clear that these words of Mr Burke are a blatant lie. He has no right to be on the school property. No right at all. He has no more right to be on the school grounds than he has to rob money from a bank. But Mr Burke clearly felt no compunction in lying to the security man to try to gain access to the school.”
Mr Justice Cregan said Mr Burke had claimed his family “do not go around trespassing on private property”.
“Again, this is clearly a blatant lie, based on the evidence before the court,” the judge said.
Mr Burke is to be committed by gardaí to Mountjoy Prison. The court will review his detention on December 18, but the judge said the teacher was free to purge his contempt any time before then.
Mr Justice Cregan said he would rule next week on a number of other issues in the case, including whether vehicles used to bring Mr Burke to the school can be sequestered.