Members of Enoch Burke’s family have stopped going on to Wilson’s Hospital School grounds since a threat was raised of sequestering cars used by them to transport him to the school and of banning other family members from going on to grounds.
Rosemary Mallon BL, for the Co Westmeath school’s board, said since the case was before the court last week, letters had been sent to certain members of the Burke family who had been filmed on the school grounds.
The letters arose out of the court’s suggestion that orders in the case could be extended to banning family members, along with teacher Enoch Burke, from the school, and two cars used to transport him to the school could be sequestered.
The court heard since this happened, no other members of the family have been on the grounds and the cars have not driven on to the grounds.
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Mr Burke now gets out of the car and walks in to the school. On October 24th, a security man warned him not to go in but he did so and his way was blocked by the guard and both stood there until Mr Burke left at 3.50pm.
However, Ms Mallon said footage of the encounter with the security man was uploaded to social media by Mr Burke and once again, as happened previously, there were racist remarks made by third parties.
The case by the school seeking further contempt orders against Mr Burke was back again on Wednesday before Mr Justice Brian Cregan.
Mr Burke has already spent more than 500 days in prison for contempt over what he says is his refusal to use a new name for a transgender pupil and use the they/them pronoun. He says this was in breach of his constitutional rights including his right to freedom of religion/conscience.
He had come to court on Wednesday because he said his family had been brought in to the case by the court’s “own volition” with threats of being barred from the school and sequestration of cars.
He said there was a repeated failure by different judges to address what this case was about – the use of transgender terminology.
There was now also the fact that the primary judgment of the High Court finding his suspension was lawful had been undermined by a subsequent Court of Appeal judgment in his favour. In that judgment Mr Burke challenged the composition of a disciplinary appeals panel set up to hear his appeal against dismissal.
Mr Burke’s submissions were marked by interruptions by various members of his family including his brother Isaac, his sister Ammi and their parents Martina and Sean.
Isaac Burke was eventually removed by gardaí after the judge requested their intervention. Other members of the family were warned they too would be removed if they did not stop interrupting.
Enoch Burke told the judge the interrupting was because of dishonesty and “lies from the bench”. Mr Justice Cregan said the only dishonesty had been from Enoch Burke.
Mr Burke repeatedly interrupted and tried to correct the judge in comments he made.
This included a comment by the judge that the lawfulness of having to call someone by the they/them pronoun has to be decided by the court because it is a constitutional matter.
Mr Burke rebuked the judge for saying so, as it was, he said, “patently unlawful”, and he was surprised the judge did not know that.
It is also, he said, the law in this jurisdiction that a male is a male and a female is a female.
Mr Burke repeatedly told the judge he was lying and that Ms Mallon was also, wagging his finger at her at one stage.
Ms Mallon rejected all his allegations and said there was no question over her professional integrity.
The court also heard the Department of Education was willing to part-fund the cost of security at the school, of 50 per cent of the cost or a total of €4,400, pending further review.
Mr Burke complained that not only had his livelihood as a teacher been taken away but his bank account had been drained by the State of some €40,000 to pay €225,000 in daily fines he has racked up for going in to the school since this case began.
He once again refused to answer the judge’s direct question of whether he would purge his contempt, describing it as a “fantastical question” which turned a blind eye to the submissions he made.
Ms Mallon said she was not seeking at this moment to extend the orders against other members of the family. However, she said if the court was minded that she should, she would have to take instructions and deal with that on another day.
The judge said he would give his decision within weeks.
