A judge has directed that members of An Garda Síochána attend his court at 2pm on Monday afternoon when, he said, he would deal with an application on behalf of school teacher Enoch Burke.
Mr Burke is in prison for repeated breaching of a court order directing him not to trespass at the school where he used to work.
His brother, Isaac, and his sister, Ammi, appeared in the High Court just before lunch insisting that the court hear an ex-parte application by them seeking a production order so that their brother Enoch could attend and represent himself.
When Mr Justice David Nolan said he would consider the matter over lunch and discuss with the High Court chief registrar whether it was appropriate for the court to entertain the application, Isaac Burke repeatedly told the court it was urgent.
Judge Nolan said he intended dealing with a family law matter and would sit again at 2pm, directing that the gardaí be notified. He told Isaac Burke “I am not going to put up with any more of your nonsense” and directed, before rising, that the court be cleared for the in camera family law matter.
Enoch Burke has spent Christmas and New Year in prison for repeatedly breaching court orders. He has been challenging the legality of a decision dismissing him from his position at Wilson’s Hospital School.
Mr Burke kept turning up at the school and refused to stop trespassing, despite the injunctions granted against him, fines totalling hundreds of thousands of euro levelled against him and the school’s employment of security guards to keep him out.
Before being jailed again in November for breaching the order to stop trespassing, Mr Burke repeatedly insisted he was attending at his place of work and had a right to be there.
A disciplinary appeals panel has heard his appeal against his dismissal, but is reconvening with regard to the matter. Burke has spent just under 600 days in prison on foot of contempt of court orders.