{"id":280392,"date":"2026-02-04T14:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/280392\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T14:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:47:08","slug":"two-resignations-from-panel-convened-to-hear-enoch-burke-appeal-court-told-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/280392\/","title":{"rendered":"Two resignations from panel convened to hear Enoch Burke appeal, court told \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two members of a three-person disciplinary appeals panel (Dap) convened to hear jailed teacher Enoch Burke\u2019s<\/a> appeal over his dismissal from Wilson\u2019s Hospital School have resigned, the High Court<\/a> has heard. <\/p>\n

Lawyers for the Dap told Judge Brian Cregan on Tuesday that Sean \u00d3 Long\u00e1in and Jack Cleary had resigned in light of issues arising in a legal challenge brought by Burke against the panel, which sought to stop it from taking further steps in the appeal process. <\/p>\n

Barrister Padraic Lyons, for the three Dap members, told the court that the specific issues giving rise to the resignations were legally privileged, but said the resignations would avoid protracted legal proceedings and \u201cclear the way\u201d for a new panel to be nominated to hear Burke\u2019s appeal. Lyons submitted that Burke\u2019s proceedings against the panel were moot, or pointless. <\/p>\n

Appearing via videolink from Mountjoy Prison, Burke said the Dap process was a \u201cshambles\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is something rotten, I believe, at the heart of the Dap process,\u201d he said, noting that this was his second challenge to a disciplinary panel.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Enoch Burke informed of resignations from panel that heard appeal over his dismissalOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Burke said he had not seen the correspondence outlining the resignations, and sought a two-week adjournment to allow time to consider the development. Burke said he rejected the suggestion that the resignations disposed of his action against the panel members.<\/p>\n

Burke also told the judge he would be seeking permission to bring a late appeal against an order by Judge Alexander Owens in May 2023 banning him from Wilson\u2019s Hospital School.<\/p>\n

Burke said he was seeking to bring this appeal following a statement issued by the Department of Education, published in The Irish Times, outlining that there was no legal obligation on schools to use a pupil\u2019s preferred pronouns. <\/p>\n

This statement, Burke claimed, showed it was \u201cutterly groundless\u201d for such a \u201cdemand\u201d to be made, and rendered Owens\u2019s judgment \u201cfatally flawed\u201d. <\/p>\n

Burke is in prison for civil contempt of court orders dating from August 2022 requiring him to stay away from the Co Westmeath school pending the outcome of the disciplinary matter.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0To free or not to free Enoch Burke? That is the question haunting judgesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He was suspended over his conduct towards the then-principal at a school religious event in June 2022. She had earlier requested teachers to address a student by a new name and the pronouns \u201cthey\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d.<\/p>\n

Burke has been jailed for a number of periods totalling almost 600 days because he has repeatedly trespassed on school property in breach of court orders.<\/p>\n

He has also engaged in an appeal process over a dismissal decision taken by the school. After he successfully challenged the composition of a first panel to hear his appeal, a second panel was convened and heard his appeal in early December.<\/p>\n

The panel was due to deliver its recommendations on January 9th, but Burke initiated proceedings on January 6th over the conduct of the Dap hearing and sought an injunction restraining further steps pending the outcome of his challenge.<\/p>\n

Cregan put to Lyons that issues in Burke\u2019s action remained live, including that he is seeking Geraldine O\u2019Brien\u2019s removal from the panel, claiming she is guilty of bias. O\u2019Brien has not tendered her resignation from the current Dap. <\/p>\n

In light of this, Cregan said he did not see how the proceedings were moot. <\/p>\n

Lyons said his clients had no control over who would be nominated to a new Dap. Lyons said it was \u201cconceivable\u201d that his clients would be nominated again to a new disciplinary panel. <\/p>\n

Lyons said the resignations will clear the way for nomination of a new panel, a fact that had to be welcomed \u201con any analysis\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said that if Burke\u2019s action against the panel must proceed, \u201cso be it\u201d, but said he struggled to see \u201chow that would be in anyone\u2019s interest\u201d. <\/p>\n

When Cregan said he would adjourn the case for one week, Burke said it was not sufficient time for him to prepare, given the impediments posed by his imprisonment. <\/p>\n

Noting that he previously released Burke from prison to allow him time to prepare his challenge against the panel, Cregan said he would adjourn the matter for two weeks. <\/p>\n

Earlier in the hearing, Cregan rose for a brief period when Isaac Burke, Enoch\u2019s brother, interrupted the judge\u2019s exchange with Burke relating to his reasoning for rejecting the submission that the proceedings were moot. Isaac was escorted from the court by garda\u00ed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two members of a three-person disciplinary appeals panel (Dap) convened to hear jailed teacher Enoch Burke\u2019s appeal over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[43693,42,73,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-280392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-enoch-burke","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-high-court","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280392","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=280392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}