He subsequently received a letter from the DAP saying they had decided to reconvene the hearing.<\/p>\n
Mr Burke alleges the chair of the panel, Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Long\u00e1in, committed perjury in a sworn document by swearing that the DAP always intended to hold a second hearing, something Mr Burke said was “demonstrably false”.<\/p>\n
Martina Burke and Ammi Burke were removed from the courtroom by garda\u00ed last Friday.<\/p>\n
Mr Justice Cregan said he would hear submissions from each woman about whether their behaviour amounted to contempt of court, interfering with the administration of justice, and whether they had an explanation for it.<\/p>\n
Martina Burke told the judge that he had struck out her son\u2019s proceedings against the DAP on Friday and had refused to acknowledge her son\u2019s claim of perjury.<\/p>\n
She said he did not deal with it until she and her family drove again to the courts from their home in Mayo earlier this week to hand in an application for the issue to be heard.<\/p>\n
She said this was a blot on the administration of justice.<\/p>\n
Both Martina and Enoch Burke raised the case of Conor McGregor in which two people who swore affidavits for Mr McGregor\u2019s appeal were accused of perjury.<\/p>\n
Martina Burke said: “When it\u2019s Enoch Burke it doesn\u2019t matter if there\u2019s perjury, but in Nikita Hand\u2019s case, people are arrested.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s different strokes for different folks,” she said.<\/p>\n
She said her son was a “righteous, sincere and excellent” teacher who should not be in jail.<\/p>\n
But she said he had been denied his constitutional rights by Judge Cregan and every other judge who had heard the case, which she said was about her son\u2019s opposition to “transgender ideology” and his refusal to call a boy a girl.<\/p>\n
Mrs Burke waved the constitution during her submissions and banged the desk on a number of occasions.<\/p>\n
There were comments of “Amen”, “yes” and “hear hear” from other family members in court.<\/p>\n
Questioned by Judge Cregan about why she would not accept that Mr Burke should not be trespassing at the school, Mrs Burke said he had been denied his constitutional rights to his religious beliefs.<\/p>\n
She said she had a duty to speak the truth.<\/p>\n
“Scripture tells us to speak the truth,” she said, “and I will speak the truth”.<\/p>\n
Ammi Burke, who is a qualified solicitor, told the judge she had spent three and a half years supporting her brother.<\/p>\n
She said the judge\u2019s striking out of proceedings against the DAP was an appalling abuse of power.<\/p>\n
She described the DAP\u2019s hearing in December as “shambolic”.<\/p>\n
![\"Enoch](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0023650f-614.jpg\"\/)
\nEnoch Burke began legal proceedings against the DAP after a hearing in December (file photo)<\/p>\n
She said it was an “abomination” that the judge had ignored the “serious matter of perjury” raised by her brother.<\/p>\n
She said she would not sit silently while her brother was denied his rights or lies were told in court.<\/p>\n
She said the judge had defamed and slandered her brother in previous rulings.<\/p>\n
Martina Burke told the judge he could still do the right thing and “let Enoch Burke go”.<\/p>\n
She asked where “transgender rights” were in the Constitution.<\/p>\n
She told the judge he was fighting against God and he would never win.<\/p>\n
The judge said he would give his ruling on the contempt issue next Wednesday.<\/p>\n
He is also due to rule on Mr Burke\u2019s application to have the affidavit of Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Long\u00e1in referred to the DPP for perjury.<\/p>\n
Mr Burke said the DAP\u2019s claim that they had always intended to hold a second disciplinary hearing was “demonstrably false”.<\/p>\n
He said when the hearing ended on the evening of 13 December, Mr \u00d3 Long\u00e1in said it was over, and did not say at any point that it would be reconvened.<\/p>\n
He said it was the clear understanding of all those present that it had concluded.<\/p>\n
Mr Burke said counsel for the school Rosemary Mallon also told the judge in court in December that the hearing was complete and a decision on whether or not Mr Burke\u2019s dismissal would be upheld was expected within ten school days.<\/p>\n
Mr Burke said Mr \u00d3 Long\u00e1in also swore in his affidavit that there was no connection between Mr Burke\u2019s correspondence outlining his complaints about the conduct of the hearing and the decision to reconvene the panel.<\/p>\n
Mr Burke said this was also clearly false, given that the DAP had written to him saying they would reconvene the hearing having considered the matter, including letters he had written to them.<\/p>\n
He said this perjury was a very serious matter.<\/p>\n
Barrister Hugh McDowell, on behalf of the DAP, said a judge could only refer matters to the DPP after considering all the evidence.<\/p>\n
In this case, he said the judge could not make such a referral simply on the basis of Mr Burke\u2019s submissions.<\/p>\n
He said the reconvening of the hearing was not that significant an issue in the case.<\/p>\n
He said the court should not draw an inference from Mr \u00d3 Long\u00e1in\u2019s subsequent resignation from the DAP, along with another member, Jack Cleary.<\/p>\n
The judge earlier ruled that he would not measure the costs of the school\u2019s last application to have Mr Burke arrested and committed to prison for trespassing.<\/p>\n
The court heard the costs are estimated at almost \u20ac32,000.<\/p>\n
Judge Cregan said he had sympathy for the school\u2019s position that he should assess the costs rather than sending the matter to the legal costs\u2019 adjudicator, saving time and expense.<\/p>\n
But the judge said it was not a simple or straightforward adjudication and he was of the view it would be done more efficiently by the legal costs\u2019 adjudicator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The High Court will rule next week on whether the mother and a sister of secondary school teacher…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-317260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317260","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=317260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}