Schoolteacher Enoch Burke faces another potential stint in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin after returning to his former school in breach of a High Court order.
Mr Burke, who has already spent more than 400 days in prison for contempt, turned up at the gates of Wilson’s Hospital School on Thursday as it welcomed students back for the new school year.
The schoolteacher was previously jailed for failing to comply with a court order that he stay away from the private boarding school in Multyfarnham in Co Westmeath, where he used to teach.
In June, the High Court consented to Mr Burke’s release from prison on the basis that the school was on summer holidays. This was done despite Mr Burke’s continued refusal to purge his contempt and undertake to stay away from the school.
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During the hearing, Mr Justice Sanfey said he wanted to make it clear that the order against Mr Burke remained in place and that if he breached the order he expected that the board of the school would make an application for his committal to prison.
Last month, the High Court ruled against Mr Burke in another case in which he argued for a permanent injunction compelling him to stay away from the school be struck out.
Mr Burke turned up at the school on Thursday as it hosted an induction day for first year students.
A Garda spokeswoman said it is aware of “an ongoing civil matter in Multyfarnham” but that it has no further comment. Mr Burke has not been arrested.
Mr Burke, an evangelical Christian from Castlebar, Co Mayo, had earlier come into conflict with school management over his refusal to address a student by a different name and use “they/them” pronouns.
He was initially suspended and then sacked in January of last year. Following his suspension, he began showing up at the gates of the school in protest.
This led to the school board applying for an injunction compelling him to stay away from the property. He was jailed for contempt after repeatedly refusing to comply with the order.
Earlier this year, Mr Burke lost another case when a court ruled a newspaper article about him was not defamatory.
The Sunday Independent ran a story on October 9th, 2022 during his initial period in prison.
The article, citing unnamed sources, said he had been moved to a new cell in Mountjoy Prison for his own safety, as he might have “got a beating” after “annoying other prisoners” and “repeatedly expressing his outspoken views and beliefs”.
Mr Burke sued, claiming the article damaged his reputation.
The defendants denied his reputation was injured in the eyes of reasonable members of society but acknowledged the article contained “minor” errors.
Dismissing his case against Sunday Independent publisher Mediahuis on June 13th, Mr Justice Mulcahy found that words used in the article, in their ordinary and natural meaning, were incapable of injuring his reputation.
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