{"id":308346,"date":"2026-02-20T17:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/308346\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T17:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:17:07","slug":"enoch-burkes-moot-challenge-to-disciplinary-panel-membership-struck-out-in-high-court-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/308346\/","title":{"rendered":"Enoch Burke\u2019s \u2018moot\u2019 challenge to disciplinary panel membership struck out in High Court \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The High Court<\/a> has struck out Enoch Burke\u2019s<\/a> challenge to the membership of a disciplinary appeal panel convened to hear his appeal over his dismissal from Wilson\u2019s Hospital School, after a judge ruled the case was moot. <\/p>\n

Judge Brian Cregan made the ruling in circumstances where two of the panel\u2019s three members had resigned, and the remaining member accepted that she could play no further role in the jailed schoolteacher\u2019s appeal. <\/p>\n

The ruling means a new panel must be appointed to hear Burke\u2019s appeal of his dismissal. It will be the third panel convened to hear the appeal. <\/p>\n

Burke was dismissed from his position at the Co Westmeath<\/a> school 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

The ruling followed a chaotic hearing at the Four Courts on Friday, which was suspended temporarily after the judge directed Burke be returned to Mountjoy Prison<\/a> and rejoin proceedings via video-link. <\/p>\n

The judge earlier warned that, in the event of his or his family\u2019s disruption of the hearing, he would direct that Burke\u2019s participation in the proceedings be from the prison, where he is currently incarcerated for failing to comply with court orders banning him from the school.<\/p>\n

After disrupting lawyers for the school in the midst of making submissions to the court, Burke was escorted from the court by prison guards. He stated that his removal was \u201cdisgraceful\u201d and that he had a right to justice.<\/p>\n

The judge also directed garda\u00ed to remove his sister Ammi and mother Martina, who started shouting after the judge directed Burke\u2019s removal.<\/p>\n

On the resumption of the hearing, with Burke present via video-link, the judge said the family\u2019s \u201cabsolutely disgraceful\u201d behaviour maintained a practice they have engaged in during various court proceedings. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely, manifestly, an abuse of process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0School wants Enoch Burke to pay its \u20ac300,000 costs bill for first year of litigation sagaOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

During the resumed hearing, he again rose from the bench when Burke\u2019s brother Isaac interrupted proceedings. Isaac was forcibly removed from the courtroom by garda\u00ed, stating that he needed to hand documents in to the court, and yelling \u201cstop\u201d and \u201chelp\u201d. <\/p>\n

Burke has spent almost 600 days in separate spells in jail over his failure to abide by the court orders directing he stay away from the school, pending the outcome of the disciplinary process. Burke has repeatedly claimed he has been jailed over his religious beliefs and views on transgender issues, a claim rejected by several High Court judges.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s hearing concerned Burke\u2019s action seeking an injunction against the three-member panel convened to hear his appeal against his dismissal from his role at the school.<\/p>\n

The court previously heard that two of the panel\u2019s members, Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Long\u00e1in and Jack Cleary, had resigned in light of issues arising in the legal challenge.<\/p>\n

Padraic Lyons, barrister for the panel members, opened to the court a Department of Education circular relating to teacher dismissals, which stipulates: \u201cNo member shall be appointed to the [disciplinary appeal] panel to consider a case referred to the panel who has had any prior interest in or dealings with that particular case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arising from this, Geraldine O\u2019Brien, the remaining panel member, could no longer sit on the panel, counsel said. <\/p>\n

Lyons said Burke was told in correspondence that O\u2019Brien \u2013 nominated to the panel by the ASTI, a teaching union \u2013 accepted that she would not be on any future panel dealing with his case. <\/p>\n

Lyons submitted that in the circumstances, the proceedings were moot. \u201cIt\u2019s manifestly clear there is no live dispute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosemary Mallon, barrister for the board of Wilson\u2019s Hospital School, agreed with Lyons\u2019s submission that O\u2019Brien \u201ccould not possibly\u201d be on any future disciplinary appeal panel on account of the circular.<\/p>\n

Burke disputed that the proceedings were moot. He said O\u2019Brien had not resigned from the panel, and that recent correspondence from the ASTI to the panel\u2019s solicitors showed O\u2019Brien remained the union\u2019s nominee to the panel. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe salient point is she\u2019s on the panel … She hasn\u2019t resigned, the defendants haven\u2019t even attempted to say she\u2019s resigned,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0What next for Enoch Burke?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Burke said he could not have regard to the defendants\u2019 undertakings to the court.<\/p>\n

Burke submitted that \u00d3 Long\u00e1in and Cleary were reappointed to the present panel, in circumstances where they were involved in a previous panel that was dissolved following a separate, successful High Court action brought by Burke. <\/p>\n

He also claimed that the panel made \u201cdemonstrably false\u201d claims on affidavit during the proceedings, and that this should be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions. <\/p>\n

The judge ruled that the proceedings were moot, and that he would strike out the case. He said he was clear that a new panel must be appointed. <\/p>\n

On account of their resignations, \u00d3 Long\u00e1in and Cleary will not form part of the new panel, the judge said. He said it was also clear that O\u2019Brien cannot play any part in the new panel.<\/p>\n

In light of this, the judge said Burke had obtained the essential reliefs that he sought in the proceedings. <\/p>\n

The judge said it was \u201cimperative\u201d for a new panel to be appointed expeditiously, noting that it was three years since Burke appealed his dismissal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The High Court has struck out Enoch Burke\u2019s challenge to the membership of a disciplinary appeal panel convened…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[43693,42,73,89406,43,40,38,41,39,59],"class_list":{"0":"post-308346","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-mountjoy-prison","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories","17":"tag-westmeath"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308346","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=308346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}