{"id":343186,"date":"2026-03-12T23:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T23:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/343186\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T23:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T23:16:09","slug":"enoch-burke-was-moved-to-castlerea-jail-for-own-safety-high-court-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/343186\/","title":{"rendered":"Enoch Burke was moved to Castlerea jail for own safety, High Court hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enoch Burke<\/a> was transferred to Castlerea jail after prison authorities decided housing him within Mountjoy\u2019s general inmate population would pose a risk to his safety, the High Court has heard. <\/p>\n

Lawyers for the prisons\u2019 governors said the transfer occurred in circumstances where, in light of his conduct during an escort to a recent court hearing, Burke was no longer deemed eligible for \u201cenhanced\u201d privileges under the Irish Prison Service\u2019s (IPS) \u201cincentivised regimes\u201d policy. This policy incentivises good behaviour among prisoners.<\/p>\n

Previously, as a prisoner with \u201cenhanced\u201d status, the teacher had been housed in a single cell at Mountjoy\u2019s West section, separate from the prison\u2019s general population. <\/p>\n

Prison authorities\u2019 stripping of Burke\u2019s \u201cenhanced\u201d status necessitated him being housed elsewhere, the court heard on Thursday. <\/p>\n

Burke is in jail for breaching a court order banning him from Wilson\u2019s Hospital School, Co Westmeath, where he previously taught German and history. <\/p>\n

He has spent more than 600 days in prison in separate spells for his contempt of the court order. Burke\u2019s imprisonment was most recently ordered in January. <\/p>\n

On March 1st, Burke was transferred by the IPS from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin \u2013 where he had been detained during his various periods of incarceration \u2013 to Castlerea Prison, Co Roscommon.<\/p>\n

Burke is challenging this transfer. He contends that the transfer had \u201cno legal basis\u201d, arguing that the court had ordered his detention be at Mountjoy. <\/p>\n

Lawyers for the prisons\u2019 governors maintain they had a legal right to transfer Burke under the Criminal Justice (Administration) Act 1914.<\/p>\n

At Thursday\u2019s hearing, David Perry, for the governors of Mountjoy and Castlerea, opened to the court a sworn statement of Don Cullinton, director of operations at the Irish Prison Service. <\/p>\n

In the statement, Cullinton outlined how Burke\u2019s behaviour during an escort to court failed to meet the standard of behaviour required for an \u201cenhanced\u201d privileges status. This left Burke ineligible for housing in Mountjoy\u2019s West section. <\/p>\n

Housing Burke in Mountjoy\u2019s general population would pose a risk to his safety, Cullinton said. To ensure Burke\u2019s safety, he required a single occupancy cell, but providing this was not possible due overcrowding there, Cullinton said. <\/p>\n

In those circumstances, Burke was transferred to Castlerea Prison, where it was possible to place the teacher in a single cell.<\/p>\n

Perry said the relevant legislation, in its \u201cordinary and natural\u201d meaning, defines a prisoner as a person held in a prison. He submitted that all prisoners \u2013 including those who are detained for contempt of civil orders \u2013 are subject to powers that allow for the transfer of inmates between prisons. <\/p>\n

Burke, appearing in court via video-link, said the 1914 Act dealt with criminal matters and should not apply to his case. He said the prisoner governors\u2019 reliance on the act was \u201cunfounded and misconceived\u201d. <\/p>\n

Responding to Cullinton\u2019s sworn statement, Burke said he had always conducted himself well in prison. \u201cI challenge any averment to the contrary,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Burke said the removal of his enhanced status was a punishment for \u201cbeing vocal in court\u201d. <\/p>\n

Following the parties\u2019 submissions, Judge Brian Cregan asked Burke if he was willing to purge his contempt and to give an undertaking not to trespass at the Wilson\u2019s Hospital School.<\/p>\n

Burke declined. He said he should not be in prison and he repeated his claim that the reason for his imprisonment was his refusal to address a pupil by \u201cthey\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d pronouns. \u201cI have no intention of compromising my Christian belief,\u201d Burke said. <\/p>\n

But the judge said: \u201cFrom my perspective it is a tragedy that you are wasting your life like this.\u201d He said had no interest in asking Burke to change his religious beliefs and said Burke was in prison for his breach of a court order. <\/p>\n

The judge reserved his judgment on the prison transfer matter to next week.<\/p>\n

Burke was banned from the school when the High Court ruled in May 2023 that Wilson\u2019s Hospital School had validly suspended Burke from his teaching position. Judge Alexander Owens ordered that Burke be restrained from attending at the school premises.<\/p>\n

The school suspended \u2013 and later dismissed \u2013 Burke over his conduct towards the then-principal Niamh McShane at a school religious event in June 2022.<\/p>\n

The confrontation arose in circumstances where McShane had earlier requested teachers to address a student by a new name, and with the pronouns \u201cthey\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d. Burke, an evangelical Christian, has maintained that this request went against his religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

He 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enoch Burke was transferred to Castlerea jail after prison authorities decided housing him within Mountjoy\u2019s general inmate population…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[615,43693,42,73,11183,89406,43,21727,40,38,41,39,59],"class_list":["post-343186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-dublin","tag-enoch-burke","tag-headlines","tag-high-court","tag-irish-prison-service","tag-mountjoy-prison","tag-news","tag-roscommon","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-westmeath"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343186","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=343186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}