Irish teacher Enoch Burke jailed again after student pronoun culture war

A teacher at the centre of a student gender row has been jailed a third time after he was fired for refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns.

A teacher in Ireland at the centre of a student gender row has been jailed a third time for refusing to stay away from his former place of employment.

Enoch Burke was suspended by Wilson’s Hospital School in Mullingar, west of Dublin, in August 2022, after publicly objecting to what he deemed “the hellish ideology of transgenderism” and refusing to address a transgender student by their preferred name and pronoun.

Burke, an evangelical Christian, was later fired by the school, and has launched an appeal, claiming he is being silenced because of his religious beliefs.

Wilson’s took legal action after Burke continued to show up at the school following his dismissal, declaring he was there to do his job, which it said was “disruptive” to staff and students.

Irish teacher Enoch Burke has been sent to prison a third time for refusing to stay away from his former place of employment. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Images via Getty Images

An injunction was granted by a judge – one that was breached by Burke. He was subsequently jailed in September of that year for contempt of court.

Burke was released after three months at Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison.

When he continued to show up at the school, he was sent to jail again.

As a result, Burke has now spent more than 400 days behind bars – a number set to increase after a High Court judge on Monday found him in contempt of the injunction for the third time, having shown up at Wilson’s on the first day of the new term.

Burke pictured outside Wilson’s Hospital School. Picture: Alamy

According to The Associated Press, Ireland’s national police force, An Garda Síochána, said officers “executed a High Court order in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath on Monday afternoon, 2nd September 2024. A man was detained … and has now appeared before the High Court.”

“It is an insult to every law-abiding citizen for someone who is the subject of a court order to decide, unilaterally, that it should be ignored,” Justice Michael Quinn said.

The teacher said the case against him amounted to “a mockery of justice”, The Irish Times reports, and accused the court of denying him his religious rights, which included his belief in only two genders: male and female.

Burke has now been sent back to Mountjoy Prison – an order that he said Justice Quinn would “have to answer to God” for.

The former teacher said the case against him amounted to ‘a mockery of justice’. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Images via Getty Images

Burke arrives at Dublin’s Court of Appeal on February 16, 2023. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Images via Getty Images

Former law lecturer at University College Galway, Tom O’Malley, pointed out that Burke could easily bring the drama to an end – and stay out of prison – by agreeing to abide by the injunction – something he has refused to do.

“Unless people obey court orders, we cannot really expect of any kind of social order at all,” Mr O’Malley told Irish broadcaster RTE.

“There has to be some kind of system whereby people have to be sanctioned or at least coerced or persuaded as much as possible to obey them and unfortunately, beyond imprisonment … there doesn’t appear to be the alternative to it right now.”

The case will be reviewed on October 11.

Originally published as Irish teacher Enoch Burke jailed again after student pronoun culture war