{"id":246146,"date":"2026-01-15T13:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T13:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/246146\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T13:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T13:48:07","slug":"enoch-burkes-return-to-westmeath-school-after-release-from-prison-raised-in-high-court-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/246146\/","title":{"rendered":"Enoch Burke\u2019s return to Westmeath school after release from prison raised in High Court \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The High Court<\/a> has been alerted to the fact teacher Enoch Burke<\/a> returned to Wilson\u2019s Hospital School, the day after he was released from Mountjoy Prison.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a judge said he should be released<\/a> to prepare for a case launched against an appeals body due to review his dismissal from the Westmeath school.<\/p>\n

Speaking to journalists, supporters and protesters gathered outside the school on Thursday morning, Mr Burke said: \u201cI\u2019m coming here to do a day\u2019s work, that\u2019s what I\u2019ve always done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should never have been in prison in the first place, this is my workplace, this is where I teach.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, shortly afterwards, the High Court was told that Mr Burke had passed through the gates of the school. <\/p>\n

Barrister Rosemary Mallon, for the school, asked Mr Justice Brian Cregan, who released Mr Burke from prison on Wednesday, for permission to mention the case again on Thursday afternoon when she will present an affidavit outlining what had happened.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Enoch Burke leaves Mountjoy Prison after High Court orders release to prepare for hearingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She said he had returned to the school and passed the gates. \u201cThere is a security man there and there is another problem as there were quite a number of protesters who also passed into the school premises,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The judge said he had been reflecting on the matter overnight and it appeared the school might have to bring a fresh motion to attach and commit Mr Burke to prison again. <\/p>\n

He said he would hear an application on Thursday afternoon by Ms Mallon for short service of that motion along with the update on what happened.<\/p>\n

Mr Burke had been in jail since late November for breaches of a court order directing him not to trespass at Wilson\u2019s Hospital School in Co Westmeath, where he worked as a teacher.<\/p>\n

Last week, he sought a temporary injunction against a disciplinary appeals body<\/a> tasked with reviewing his dismissal from the school.<\/p>\n

\"EnochEnoch Burke at the front gates of the school on Thursday. Photograph: Colin Keegan\/Collins <\/p>\n

Before the High Court on Wednesday, Mr Justice Brian Cregan said Mr Burke had raised \u201csubstantive\u201d and \u201ccredible\u201d issues in papers prepared against the Disciplinary Appeals Panel (DAP).<\/p>\n

The judge said he was directing that Mr Burke be released from prison for \u201cone reason and one reason only\u201d, in the interest of the administration of justice and so that he has time to prepare for his case against the DAP.<\/p>\n

The judge had said the decision was being made on the basis that he would not attend the school and he would be brought back to prison if he did.<\/p>\n

Mr Burke rejected the reasons given by the judge for his release when he appeared before the court via video-link and as he walked out of Mountjoy Prison on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

He repeated his comments again at the school gates on Thursday and in a tirade against the Irish judicial system and media he accused the \u201cjudges in this country\u201d of \u201ctelling lies\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said his case was an \u201cinsult from beginning to end\u201d to the \u201cinstitutions of our State\u201d and a \u201cdisgrace\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said he was brought to court because he \u201csimply could not\u201d address a pupil using the pronoun \u201cthey\u201d, saying it was \u201canti-Christian, but as well as that, it is nonsense\u201d. \u2013 Additional reporting PA <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The High Court has been alerted to the fact teacher Enoch Burke returned to Wilson\u2019s Hospital School, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43693,73,61,60,43,59],"class_list":["post-246146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-enoch-burke","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-westmeath"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246146","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=246146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}