![\"Enoch](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/7ef1156d-c01b-4b6b-a9f9-4de5f7acf560.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOn Tuesday, Mr Justice Brian Cregan ruled in the High Court that Burke, who has continually turned up at his former school in Multyfarnham in Co Westmeath in defiance of court orders, be placed in prison for a fourth time.<\/p>\n
He has already served three periods of imprisonment totalling 513 days.<\/p>\n
In the past, garda\u00ed have never found it difficult to find Mr Burke in order to imprison him on court orders, but efforts to find him since Tuesday have so far not been successful.<\/p>\n
The teacher, who was sacked by Wilson\u2019s Hospital School in January 2023 over incidents in which he publicly confronted the then principal about a request to address a student by preferred pronouns, left his school protest on Tuesday at around the time the court ruling was made. <\/p>\n
He did not show up at the school yesterday where there were two security guards posted at the gate.<\/p>\n
And in two posts on X yesterday his family posted footage of garda\u00ed at their home in Castlebar in Co Mayo seeking his whereabouts.<\/p>\n
The first call was in the afternoon, and the second call from garda\u00ed was on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
The first social post read: \u201cGarda\u00ed arrived this evening at the Burke home to arrest teacher Enoch Burke. This is a dark and shameful day, brought on by corrupt judges who have refused to uphold the Constitution and are denying the citizens of Ireland their God-given rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Enoch Burke at the High Court, Dublin, arriving with family members including his brother Isaac (left), mother Martina (second left), and sister Ammi (right). Photo: Brian Lawless<\/p>\n
News in 90 Seconds – November 20 2025<\/p>\n
It was accompanied by a video in which a woman remonstrates with three garda\u00ed who have arrived in a van and ask for Mr Burke.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnoch Burke has a right to religious rights in this country, he has a right to religious freedom and he has a right not to accept trangenderism,\u201d the woman says.<\/p>\n
She said the garda\u00ed seeking to arrest Mr Burke was \u201cabsolutely disgraceful\u201d.<\/p>\n
As the garda\u00ed get back into their van and drive back out the driveway of the property without Mr Burke, the woman says: \u201cThis is all the garda\u00ed have to do today with all the crime, with all the abuse, the drugs the assaults, this is what the garda\u00ed are doing, coming up here looking for Enoch Burke, it\u2019s a sad, sad day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second post reads: \u201cGardai arrive at Burke home for a second time to arrest teacher Enoch Burke\u201d and the accompanying video Mr Burke\u2019s father Sean can be seen answering the door and telling garda\u00ed that Enoch is entitled to his religious beliefs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really shameful that you are here. He has a constitutional right, we all have, to profess and practice our belief. That has been denied my son,\u201d he tells garda\u00ed. <\/p>\n
A garda explains to Mr Burke snr that they are there under the instructions of the High Court, and asks Mr Burke does he know where Enoch is. Mr Burke then tells garda\u00ed \u201cthis is going on three years\u201d and does not answer the question concerning Enoch\u2019s whereabouts.<\/p>\n
As the four garda\u00ed leave the house members of the Burke family can be heard calling after them, reminding them that they are on private property.<\/p>\n
Stand-off <\/p>\n
The current situation is an unusual one for both Mr Burke and garda\u00ed. <\/p>\n
Up until this point Mr Burke has always been visible and available to gardai, and he has used situations of court appearances and arrests to publicly voice his opinion that he is being persecuted for his religious beliefs.<\/p>\n
Mr Burke has spent three terms in prison to date, amounting to more than 500 days in total. In order to get out of prison he is required to purge his contempt and declare that he will not go back to the school, but so far he has not done so.<\/p>\n
His release from prison in the past was because he was seen to be obtaining an advantage from his defiance of the court order, and even though stiff fines were imposed upon him, and his bank account drained to pay for them, he has continued on his quest to turn up unwanted at the school.<\/p>\n
But something now appears to have changed in his psyche, and it appears he is now trying to avoid going to jail again.<\/p>\n
He cannot be found, and if he wants to avoid jail he cannot turn up at the school or he will be arrested.<\/p>\n
If he does not want to go to jail again he has the option of standing before a judge and purging his contempt, but that would also mean giving up his daily school protest which he now cannot engage in anyway because of impending arrest.<\/p>\n
Mr Burke has found himself in a cycle where his school protests and \u201cI\u2019m here to teach\u201d and \u201cThis is my place of work\u201d mantra have had to fall silent.<\/p>\n
Wilson\u2019s Hospital School seems to have the upper hand now because whether or not Mr Burke remains in hiding or not it seems he is destined to stay away from the school.<\/p>\n
Yet garda\u00edi are duty bound to carry out the High Court order given to them by Mr Justice Cregan, and it appears they will keep seeking him to bring him back to jail.<\/p>\n
It is unclear what has changed in Mr Burke\u2019s mind that has put him in a situation where he does not want to be found, and in effect everywhere he goes is now a prison where he has no freedom and he cannot engage in his daily school protest.<\/p>\n
It is the first time in the ongoing saga that Mr Burke appears to be backed into a corner.<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen what his immediate future holds. If garda\u00ed find him he will be imprisoned until he purges his contempt. If he goes to the school he will be imprisoned until he purges his contempt. If he stays in hiding he is silenced and cannot attend the school.<\/p>\n
Mr Burke\u2019s salary is being used by the courts to pay his fines of more than \u20ac225,000, and his bank account has been emptied for the same purpose.<\/p>\n
He was also reminded, in his absence, on Tuesday that Mr Justice Cregan had directed the teacher to prepare a statement of assets and income, which he failed to do so, in what the judge said was \u201cyet another example of his refusal to obey a court order\u201d.<\/p>\n
But Mr Justice Cregan then went further. \u201cIt also raises questions in the mind of the court as to whether he has any other sources of income,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n
Those questions remain as the search for Mr Burke continues and garda\u00ed continue to search for him, or he make himself available to them.<\/p>\n
The landscape of Mr Burke\u2019s protest appears to have changed suddenly, and at Wilson\u2019s Hospital School in Multyfarnham today students and staff were working in a more normal situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Tuesday, Mr Justice Brian Cregan ruled in the High Court that Burke, who has continually turned up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,898,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-149976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-latest-news-ticker","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}