Irish teacher jailed for third time after defying orders to stay away from school that fired him

LONDON — A teacher in Ireland who said he was fired because of his views on gender equality has been sentenced to prison for the third time for refusing to stay away from the school where he previously worked.

A High Court judge found Enoch Burke in contempt of court on Monday for ignoring an injunction banning him from attending Wilson's Hospital School in Mullingar, about 80 kilometres west of Dublin.

He was suspended from school in 2022 after publicly protesting “transgender ideology” and refusing to address a transgender student by his preferred name and pronouns. He was later fired and has appealed.

He continued to attend school and spent over 400 days in prison after defying a court order to stay away from school. He was released from Dublin's Mountjoy Prison in June and returned to school when the academic year began in late August.

The school took legal action, saying Burke's presence was disruptive to staff and students.

Ireland's national police force, An Garda Síochána, said officers “executed an order of the High Court in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath on Monday afternoon, 2 September 2024. A man was arrested by An Garda Síochána and has now appeared before the High Court.”

Burke, who has become a well-known figure in Ireland, claims he is being silenced because of his Christian beliefs.

The courts have rejected this notion. An Irish High Court judge said in September: “It is an insult to any law-abiding citizen for someone who is the subject of a court order to unilaterally decide that it should be ignored.”

Lawyers have pointed out that Burke could put an end to the legal drama by agreeing to comply with the injunction, but he has so far refused to do so.

“If people do not comply with court orders, we cannot expect any social order at all,” Tom O'Malley, a retired law lecturer at University College Galway, told RTE.

“There has to be some kind of system where people are sanctioned or at least forced or persuaded to follow these rules as much as possible. And unfortunately, other than a prison sentence… there seems to be no alternative to that at the moment.”