Enoch Burke arrives at Wilson’s Hospital School for sixth consecutive school day

Yesterday, Mr Burke described as “scurrilous” an accusation by a judge that he “exploited” his imprisonment for contempt of court and used it to his own ends.

Speaking to the Irish Independent yesterday on his fifth day of attendance after being stripped of his teaching duties, Mr Burke said he was in a 12ft by 6ft cell for 108 days, behind a locked door, with one to two six-minute phone calls a day and one to two visits a week.

“How do you exploit a situation like that? The truth of the matter is I should never have been in prison,” he said.

Judge Brian O’Moore has also imposed a fine of €700 for every day that Mr Burke turns up at the school he has been dismissed from until he purges his contempt.

Mr Burke, from Castlebar in Co Mayo, has continued to show up at the school every day despite losing his job last week following a disciplinary hearing over his behaviour when he continued to turn up at the school after his initial suspension for not obeying a request that a trans student be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns.

Mr Burke spent 108 days in prison for contempt of court after the school brought an application seeking a court order that he cease attending the school following his suspension last August.

He was arrested for trespass last week when he turned up at the school following his sacking, and when he was released from garda questioning he returned to the school again.

A file is being sent to the DPP on the trespass matter, and Mr Burke continues to turn up and spends the day outside the school because he is not allowed entry to the building.

Yesterday he also claimed that media had painted his objection to his disciplinary meeting in “a very dark light... in the darkest possible hues”.

“And at the same time, they have neglected to ask the questions that they should be asking,” he said, adding that questions should be asked about how the hearing was conducted and why the chairman of the school board, John Rogers, had not attended on the day “and yet the very next day he could be there in the school when I was being handed my dismissal notice”.

“Journalists should be asking is it allowable that a school can dismiss a teacher solely because of their religious beliefs? Is it allowable for a principal to demand the staff that they accept transgenderism?” he said.

“I would say just in relation to the media, because it also points to their scrutiny of the judiciary, just because somebody puts on a wig and a robe, it doesn’t mean all of us should surrender our intelligence.”

Asked how he passes the time outside the school, Mr Burke conceded that the days are long. “It is a long day. I’m here to work,” he said, before being picked up by his waiting father.

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