Jailed teacher Enoch Burke was transferred to Castlerea Prison after prison authorities decided housing him within Mountjoy Prison\u2019s general inmate population would pose a risk to his safety, the High Court has heard.<\/p>\n
Lawyers for the prisons\u2019 governors told Mr Justice Brian Cregan on Thursday that the transfer occurred in circumstances where, in light of Mr Burke\u2019s conduct during an escort to a recent court hearing, he 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. Prison authorities\u2019 stripping of Mr Burke\u2019s \u201cenhanced\u201d status necessitated him being housed elsewhere, the court heard.<\/p>\n
Enoch 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. His imprisonment was most recently ordered in January.<\/p>\n
On March 1, Enoch Burke was transferred by the IPS from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin \u2014 where he had been detained during his various periods of incarceration \u2014 to Castlerea Prison in Co Roscommon.<\/p>\n
He 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. Lawyers for the prisons\u2019 governors maintain that they had a legal right to transfer Mr Burke under the Criminal Justice (Administration) Act 1914.<\/p>\n
Enoch Burke was banned from the school when the High Court ruled in May 2023 that Wilson\u2019s Hospital School had validly suspended Mr Burke from his teaching position. Judge Alexander Owens ordered that he be restrained from attending at the school premises.<\/p>\n
The school suspended \u2014 and later dismissed \u2014 Mr 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 the principal had earlier requested teachers to address a student by a new name, and with the pronouns \u201cthey\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d. Mr 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
At Thursday\u2019s hearing, David Perry, barrister 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, Mr Cullinton outlined how Mr Burke\u2019s behaviour during an escort to court failed to meet the standard of behaviour required for an \u201cenhanced\u201d privileges status. This left him ineligible for housing in Mountjoy\u2019s West section.<\/p>\n
Housing Enoch Burke in Mountjoy\u2019s general population would pose a risk to his safety, Mr Cullinton said. To ensure his safety, he required a single occupancy cell, but providing this was not possible due overcrowding in the prison, Mr Cullinton said.<\/p>\n
In those circumstances, Enoch Burke was transferred to Castlerea Prison, where it was possible to place the teacher in a single cell.<\/p>\n
Counsel submitted that the legislation, in its \u201cordinary and natural\u201d meaning, defines a prisoner as a person held in a prison. He submitted that all prisoners \u2014 including those who are detained for contempt of civil orders \u2014 are subject to powers that allow for the transfer of inmates between prisons.<\/p>\n
In response, Mr Burke, appearing in court via videolink, said the 1914 Act deals with criminal matters, and should not apply to his case. He said the prison governors\u2019 reliance on the act was \u201cunfounded and misconceived\u201d.<\/p>\n
Responding to Mr Cullinton\u2019s sworn statement, he said he had always conducted himself well in prison. \u201cI challenge any averment to the contrary,\u201d he said. Mr Burke said the removal of his enhanced status was a punishment for \u201cbeing vocal in court\u201d.<\/p>\n
Following the parties\u2019 submissions, the judge asked Enoch Burke if he was willing to purge his contempt, and give an undertaking not to trespass at the Wilson\u2019s Hospital School.<\/p>\n
Mr Burke declined. He said he should not be in prison, and 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 he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom my perspective it is a tragedy that you are wasting your life like this,\u201d the judge replied. He said had no interest in asking Mr Burke to change his religious beliefs, and said he 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jailed teacher Enoch Burke was transferred to Castlerea Prison after prison authorities decided housing him within Mountjoy Prison\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54,43693,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-343512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-courts","tag-enoch-burke","tag-headlines","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\/343512","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=343512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}