Enoch Burke has secured a temporary High Court injunction restraining the hearing of his appeal against his dismissal from his job as a teacher at Wilson’s Hospital secondary school.
Mr Burke was dismissed by the Co Westmeath school’s board of management earlier this year. His appeal against that decision was due to be heard by a three-person teacher’s disciplinary panel on Friday at a hotel in Tullamore, Co Offaly.
His dismissal came after he was found by the school’s board of management to have engaged in behaviour that amounted to gross misconduct. He denies ever engaging in what could be considered gross misconduct and claims his dismissal, and related court proceedings against him, are over his objection to transgenderism.
In proceedings brought against the members of the panel - Sean Ó Longáin, Kieran Christie and Jack Cleary - Mr Burke claims that the proposed hearing of the appeal was flawed and should be halted.
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He sought the order on grounds that Mr Christie, general secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), should have recused himself from hearing the matter but has declined to. Mr Christie, it is claimed by Mr Burke, is supportive of a policy that promotes the recognition of transgenderism in Irish schools.
He said the ASTI advises schools to use the pronouns that students request to be addressed by, but not everyone agrees. He said it was unacceptable that he would remain a member of the panel.
“A reasonable and impartial observer would have a grave concern that Mr Christie could not approach my appeal from a neutral and unbiased standpoint,” he said.
Recording
Mr Burke, who represented himself in court, also claimed that neither he, nor the panel, had been provided with a clip contained in a Whatsapp message allegedly exchanged between the former principal of Wilson Hospital Niamh McShane and the chairman of the school’s board, John Rogers.
He claimed the message was a recording of a school service last year where he publicly outlined his objections to a direction by the school to call a student at the school by a different name and the pronoun ‘they’.
He claims that clip is important as the school placed enormous weight on what happened at that event when it commenced the disciplinary proceedings against him which resulted in his dismissal last January.
He claims the clip features his “respectful and measured” contribution at the service where he says he asked Ms McShane to withdraw her direction to call a then student by a different name and pronoun.
He claims the school board has not provided a proper response to this request to have the clip, nor has it confirmed the existence of the clip.
In a ruling on Thursday afternoon, Ms Justice Eileen Roberts ruled that Mr Burke had raised fair issues in his application, and was therefore entitled to a temporary injunction halting the hearing of the appeal.
No findings of fact
The judge added that she was making no findings of fact in relation to Mr Burke’s claims other that fair issues had been raised by him.
The injunction, which was granted on an ex-parte basis, will return before the High Court next week.
Mr Burke’s application is the latest in a long-running legal battle that commenced in late August when the school obtained an injunction restraining him from attending at its premises pending the outcome of disciplinary hearing against him.
Following his refusal to comply with the court’s order, Mr Burke was jailed for being in contempt of court and spent 108 days in Mountjoy Prison. He was released shortly before Christmas and was warned about his future conduct regarding the terms of injunction.
However, following the Christmas break he returned to the school premises, resulting in the High Court imposing a daily fine of €700 on him while he continues to breach the court order.
The school’s decision to suspend him was subsequently upheld by the High Court, and Mr Burke also lost his appeal against that court’s decision to grant the junctions against him.