Enoch Burke: Irish teacher to be fined for each day court order is breached
Enoch Burke has continued to show up at Wilson's Hospital School despite his dismissal last week
- Published
An Irish teacher is to be fined €700 (£615) a day if he does not agree to obey a High Court order barring him from visiting a school that dismissed him.
Enoch Burke was jailed in September for breaching an order preventing him from attending Wilson's Hospital School after an investigation.
On Thursday he attended the County Westmeath school for a third day in spite of his dismissal last week.
The judge at the High Court said the fine would come into effect at 14:00 local time on Friday if Mr Burke visited the school again.
Daily breaches of the order could lead to the fine amounting to about €5,000 (£4,397) a week.
The judge said the fine was an attempt to stop Mr Burke continuing his "utterly pointless attendance" at a school that did not want him on its property.
He said the decision would be reviewed at a hearing on 10 February and the fine could be increased if it did not have the desired effect.
Mr Burke was previously suspended on full pay pending the outcome of a disciplinary process against him.
It came after he confronted his then-principal in public at a school event in June 2022, in which he objected to addressing a student who is transitioning gender with a new name and using the "they" pronoun.
Mr Burke continued to turn up for his timetabled hours, leading to the school applying to the High Court for an injunction.
That order prevented him from attending or attempting to teach at Wilson's Hospital School.
After it was repeatedly breached, Mr Burke was jailed at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin last September.
He was subsequently released after almost four months.
Mr Burke has said his suspension and imprisonment were unlawful.