Enoch Burke returns to Westmeath school a day after being released from prison

The High Court has heard how Enoch Burke trespassed at Wilson’s Hospital School the day after he was released from Mountjoy Prison.

On Wednesday, a High Court judge said he should be released to prepare for a case launched against an appeals body due to review his dismissal from the Westmeath school.

However, on Thursday, he appeared at the school gates along with a number of protesters.

Rosemary Mallon, a barrister representing the school’s board of management, made an application for short service of fresh attachment and committal proceedings against Mr Burke.

As part of her application, Ms Mallon submitted an affidavit to the court that Mr Burke had trespassed, a “number of feet past the gate”, breaching a previous court order for him not to enter the school’s grounds.

She said the school’s principal, Noel Cunningham, had confirmed by email that Mr Burke had arrived at the school at 9:30 and supplied a photo of him standing past the walls of the school.

Mr Justice Brian Cregan told the court he had made it “clear as crystal” Mr Burke should not return to school.

Ms Mallon said the school finds itself in the “invidious position” of having Mr Burke returned to the grounds around 24 hours after he was released from prison.

She said a group of protesters with placards and flags who were also at the school on Thursday morning made it difficult for some teachers to access the school, but emphasised the school was not suggesting Mr Burke was responsible for them

Mr Cregan noted they had a right to protest outside the school, but Ms Mallon said some of them did go past the walls, trespassing on school grounds.

She said without Mr Burke’s presence it would be “highly doubtful” there would be a protest.

Mr Burke will now be informed via his personal email of the application, and another court date has been set to hear the matter on Friday afternoon, which could see him ordered to return to prison.

Speaking to reporters outside the school Mr Burke said: “I’m coming here to do a day’s work, that’s what I’ve always done.

“I should never have been in prison in the first place, this is my work place, this is where I teach.”

Mr Burke has been in jail since late November for breaches of a court order directing him not to trespass at Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath, where he worked as a teacher.

Last week, he sought a temporary injunction against a disciplinary appeals body tasked with reviewing his dismissal from the school.

Before the High Court on Wednesday, Mr Cregan said Mr Burke had raised “substantive” and “credible” issues in papers prepared against the Disciplinary Appeals Panel (DAP).

The judge said he was directing that Mr Burke be released from prison for “one reason and one reason only”, in the interest of the administration of justice and so that he has time to prepare for his case against the DAP.

The judge had said the decision was being made on the basis that he would not attend the school and he would be brought back to prison if he did.

Mr Burke rejected the reasons given by the judge for his release when he appeared before the court via videolink and as he walked out of Mountjoy Prison on Wednesday.

He repeated his comments again at the school gates on Thursday and in a tirade against the Irish judicial system and media he accused the “judges in this country” of “telling lies”.

He said his case was an “insult from beginning to end” to the “institutions of our State” and a “disgrace”.

He said he was brought to court because he “simply could not” address a pupil using the pronoun “they”, saying it was “anti Christian, but as well as that, it is nonsense”.