{"id":329200,"date":"2026-03-04T22:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T22:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/329200\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T22:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T22:57:08","slug":"enoch-burke-tells-judge-after-jailing-of-his-mother-and-sister-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/329200\/","title":{"rendered":"Enoch Burke tells judge after jailing of his mother and sister \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The High Court<\/a> it may have been but, as usual, it was not quite high enough for Enoch Burke<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have mocked God,\u201d he told Justice Brian Cregan by video-link from prison on Wednesday, after the judge had ruled against him and other members of the family on a series of issues, in the process jailing Burke\u2019s mother and sister for contempt<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is a higher judge,\u201d the prisoner continued, warning that Cregan would be called to \u201cgive an account\u201d before that bench in due course. Hinting at the likely verdict, Burke added: \u201cYou are not a good man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t threaten me, Mr Burke,\u201d replied the judge, physically present in Court No 2, who also corrected the record on the Almighty: \u201cI have not mocked God at all.\u201d <\/p>\n

What he had said earlier, when ordering that Martina Burke and her daughter Ammi (neither of whom was present) to be jailed for two weeks over their part in the \u201cuproar\u201d at a hearing last month, was this:<\/p>\n

\u201cMrs Burke and Ms Burke \u2013 just like their brother Enoch \u2013 are not exceptional. They are just exceptionally unable to accept what every other citizen in this Republic accepts every day … We live in a democracy governed by the rule of law and not a theocracy governed by the Burke family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compared with the \u201cshouting and roaring\u201d (as the judge called it) at the last hearing, the ruling was delivered in relative calm. Speaking of relatives, Enoch\u2019s brother Isaac was the only Burke in court and limited himself to interjecting, firmly but politely, on a few occasions.<\/p>\n

In contrast with Isaac\u2019s formal suit and tie, Enoch wore a buttoned-up but casual pink shirt, open just enough at the collar to reveal a pale blue inner lining. Even when not speaking, meanwhile, he was eloquent in his disapproval of proceedings, pursing his lips constantly and on several occasions shaking his head.<\/p>\n

Another of the issues on which Cregan had to rule related to Burke\u2019s claim of perjury by a member of the disciplinary panel investigating his dismissal from Wilson\u2019s Hospital School. To this, the judge recited a litany of other examples in which Burke had alleged people were telling lies. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Time to halt Burke \u2018family circus\u2019: Judge sentences Enoch Burke\u2019s mother and sister to prison for two weeksOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Burke accuses everyone of lying,\u201d he said, including all the judges in the case. After five months of dealing with him, however, Cregan had formed the view that \u201che himself is entirely mendacious about the reasons why he is in prison\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was not there \u201cbecause of his beliefs on transgenderism … he is in prison because he has breached a court order not to trespass on the school\u2019s grounds\u201d. The judge added: \u201cHe is not entitled to his own truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questions of \u201cmootness\u201d \u2013 what is and is not a matter for discussion in a legal case \u2013 arose in several parts of the judge\u2019s ruling. But as well as moot ones, there several mute points too.<\/p>\n

First, when the judgment was interrupted by conversation and laughter from some of those following the case remotely, non-participants had to be asked to switch off their microphones. <\/p>\n

Later, when Burke was given the opportunity to speak on legal matters but chose instead to berate the judge, he was forcibly silenced on several occasions.<\/p>\n

Even this was done with something like decorum. \u201cI\u2019m ordering that Mr Burke be muted,\u201d the judge would tell the registrar, who would reply: \u201cI\u2019m muting him now\u201d and then add: \u201cMr Burke, you\u2019ve been muted.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Enoch Burke\u2019s mother says her \u2018godly\u2019 and \u2018righteous\u2019 son should never have been jailedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Burke is named for an Old Testament prophet so favoured by God that he was \u201ctaken to Heaven\u201d while still alive. But questions of where the earthbound Enoch was to be taken after the last hearing dominated Wednesday\u2019s later exchanges. <\/p>\n

It was supposed to be Mountjoy. Since when, if not to Hell, Burke had been transferred to Hell\u2019s Cromwellian surrogate, Connaught: Castlerea Prison in Co Roscommon, to be exact. Or, as the Mayo-born Burke put it, more vaguely and with apparent distaste: \u201csomewhere down the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

This was not in accordance with the court\u2019s directive, he argued when unmuted again after warning that the case would be referred to divine authority eventually. Burke did not specify a date for that hearing. Cregan, by contrast, adjourned proceedings until next Tuesday, when the governor of Mountjoy will be asked to attend. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The High Court it may have been but, as usual, it was not quite high enough for Enoch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[43693,42,73,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-329200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-enoch-burke","tag-headlines","tag-high-court","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329200","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=329200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}