Enoch Burke's legal saga and what might happen next

Updated / Tuesday, 23 Dec 2025 06:00 Enoch Burke has spent almost 550 days in prison in four separate periods since September 2022 Órla O\u0027Donnell By Órla O'Donnell Legal Affairs Correspondent Secondary school teacher Enoch Burke is preparing to spend Christmas in prison for the first time since his dispute with the school where he used to work began. Mr Burke has been imprisoned for repeatedly breaching a court order directing him not to trespass at the school. A decision on whether his dismissal from his position should be upheld is due early in the new year. Our legal affairs correspondent, Órla O'Donnell has been looking back at the legal saga and at what might happen next. Enoch Burke has now spent almost 550 days in prison in four separate periods since September 2022. The dispute with Wilson’s Hospital School, where he taught, began in May that year, when the then principal asked teachers to use a new name and they/them pronouns for a pupil. Issues arose when Mr Burke objected to this on the grounds of his religious beliefs. He objected at a staff meeting, in emails and subsequently, publicly, towards the end of a school service in June 2022 before confronting the principal at a dinner afterwards. Wilson’s Hospital decided to initiate a disciplinary process and suspended Mr Burke. However, Mr Burke continued to attend the school, despite the suspension. The school sought an injunction against him, beginning a legal battle which shows no sign of coming to an end any time soon. Wilson's Hospital initiated a disciplinary process and suspended Mr Burke At the core of the case is Mr Burke’s claim that he has been punished for holding certain religious beliefs versus the school’s claim that he was suspended and subsequently dismissed because of his conduct. Mr Burke claims none of the judges who have dealt with his case have ever fully addressed the issue and he says the courts should never have granted the injunctions against him, which he is now in prison for breaching. 'A complete disconnect' Senior Counsel, Bernard Dunleavy who specialises in commercial cases and civil disputes, says he has never seen anything like it. He says there appears to be "a complete disconnect" between the reason Enoch Burke was sent to jail and the reason Mr Burke believes he is in jail. He says he has never come across someone in these circumstances who has not been able to grapple with the reason why they find themselves in such a position. Mr Burke kept turning up at the school and refused to stop trespassing, despite the injunctions granted against him, fines totalling hundreds of thousands of euro levelled against him and the school’s employment of security guards to keep him out. Mr Dunleavy says this makes him extremely unusual amongst those who are found to have breached court orders. He points out that in most cases, the prospect of "being in the company of a garda, or before a judge" is...

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