Irish teacher Enoch Burke jailed for a third time after he was arrested outside the school that sacked him for refusing to ‘call a boy a girl’. (Mr Burke pictured here arriving at the court of appeal in Dublin in February 2023)
Irish schoolteacher Enoch Burke has been sent to prison for the third time following his arrest outside the school that sacked him for refusing to ‘call a boy a girl’.
On 2nd September 2024, Mr Burke was placed inside a Garda vehicle outside Wilson’s Hospital School in Ireland’s Co Westmeath and driven to the Four Courts in Dublin, according to the Irish Independent.
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The judge made the decision after Mr. Burke repeatedly refused to give a direct answer when asked if he would continue to ignore an order from Mr. Justice Alexander Owens, which prohibits him from attending the school.
Mr. Justice Quinn stated that he was ‘satisfied’ Mr. Burke was in contempt of court and noted that his presence at the school was ‘disruptive to the staff’s ability to provide orderly education to pupils’. He ordered that Mr. Burke be detained at Mountjoy Prison until he ‘purges his contempt’.
The case will be listed again on 11th October 2024 but the judge said Mr Burke could ‘purge his contempt’ before then.
‘You will answer to God’
Mr Burke pictured at Wilson’s Hospital School gate in 2023. photo :DailyMail
Following the ruling, Mr Burke told the judge: ‘You will answer to God for imprisoning me for my religious beliefs.’
‘This court is simply denying me my religious beliefs, and my right to my religious beliefs. I am a Christian. I have Christian beliefs. My belief is male and female, God made them male and female.’
During the hearing, Mr. Burke and his family argued that the numerous judges who have handled the case had failed to address a report made by the school’s then-principal, Niamh McShane, which prompted to the schoolteacher’s suspension in August 2022.
Legality ‘never considered’
They said: ‘You can lie like your colleagues have over the past two years. The truth can be trampled into the ground but it will rise again.’
Luke 8:17 For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.
Mr Burke said Ms McShane had claimed he was guilty of gross misconduct due to his refusal to call a ‘transitioning student’ by a new name and the pronoun ‘they’. He said the legality of that demand was never considered by the court.
However, last year, Judge Owens found the school was right to suspend Mr Burke over fears of ‘harmful and disruptive conduct’
The Bible says,
Romans 14:10-12 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ…So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
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Watch the video of police at Burke’s family home:
Persecuted yet firm in truth
In June 2024, an Irish High Court judge ordered the release of Enoch Burke from Mountjoy Prison.
Mr Justice Mark Sanfey directed that Mr Burke be freed from the Dublin prison, where he has been incarcerated since last September for his refusal to stay away from Wilson’s Hospital School in County Westmeath.
The judge said that following a review of the situation, ‘the fact examinations are now completed and the school is on holidays, and thereby directing Mr. Burke’s release.’
‘The court did not require Mr Burke to purge his contempt with an agreement to comply with the terms of an order made against him last year,’ the judge said.
Suspended for opposing ‘trans rights’
In May 2023, the High Court upheld Wilson’s Hospital School’s decision to suspend Enoch Burke in August 2022. The school sought the court’s affirmation that it was justified in placing Mr. Burke on paid leave pending the outcome of a disciplinary process.
Mr. Burke had contested the suspension, arguing that it was unlawful and driven by his opposition to the extension of ‘transgender rights’, which arose after the school directed him to address a former student by a different pronoun.
Additionally, the school had secured a High Court injunction requiring Mr. Burke to stay away from the premises during his suspension.
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‘Exploiting imprisonment for personal gains?’
Enoch Burke
In a December 2023 ruling, Judge Brian O’Moore suggested that the “only plausible interpretation” of Mr Burke’s actions was that he was “exploiting his imprisonment for personal gain” and seeking fame; otherwise, he would have “taken the opportunity to end it” by simply complying.
However, this may be the “only plausible interpretation” from the perspective of a judge in the now heavily secularised Ireland, where the notion that a man might be acting out of genuine religious conviction is seen as absurd and unthinkable.
Meanwhile, inmates at Mountjoy Prison reportedly expressed their support for their new inmate, him, saying that he “should not be in here” and encouraging him to “keep [his] head up,” even leaving small gifts like popcorn and biscuits at his cell door.
This has been pointed out to highlight the view that, in Ireland, the moral compass of criminals now seems more aligned with the Almighty than that of judges.
Are Christian teachers the target?
The recent arrest, suspension, and termination of employment of Christian teachers seem increasingly like efforts to force educators to conform to ‘trans’ ideologies.
Joshua Sutcliffe, for example, was banned from teaching by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) In July 2024 for stating that ‘a boy cannot be a girl’ and ‘homosexuality is a sin.’ Their ruling was upheld in court by one Justice Pepperall. (See our related story here.)
Also, In July 2023, a Christian councillor, King Lawal was suspended for tweeting that pride is not a virtue but a sin.
Meanwhile, another Christian teacher identified as Glawdys Leger was sacked after refusing to promote extreme ‘LGBT’ ideology, and for expressing her biblical beliefs on human sexuality in response to student questions.
In July 2023, a Christian social worker had a £25,000-a-year job offer revoked after his employer discovered his previous legal victory affirming his freedom of speech. Felix Ngole faced expulsion from a social worker training course at Sheffield University after sharing a Facebook post that referenced Bible passages on the topic of same-sex marriage.
Similarly, in 2019, Dr. Bernard Randall received a 5-year ban from his ministry for preaching traditional Christian views to students at Trent College, a private school in Derbyshire, where he was the chaplain.
He delivered a sermon titled ‘Competing Ideologies,’ where he reassured young people that they were ‘not obliged to accept someone else’s ideology.’ In his speech, grounded in Biblical principles, he encouraged students to be open to diverse viewpoints, whether on religion, Brexit, or ‘LGBT’ issues. See our story here.
Meanwhile, Irish state or schools could alleviate the situation by declaring God’s truth that a boy cannot be a girl.
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3 comments
The list of persecuted Christians reads like a roll call of heroes. Thank you for giving publicity to these honourable Christians.
Another quotation from the Bible that we should use is Gen 1:27 In the beginning God created them male and female. This is the starting point for refusing to comply with the anti-God agenda of the establishment.
Romans 1:25 is also important; And they exchanged the truth of God for a lie.
All of this trouble started when billions of years evolution was accepted by default by the British Church. Most UK Church leaders have been deceived and never seem to want to do any due diligence on the absurd claims made by the billions of years brigade who promote this non-science.
The science is against billions of years; it supports young earth Genesis creation.
Answers in Genesis has loads of resources.
I get the impression that Enoch Burke is definitely the victim of unfair treatment that disgraces the school at which he worked, but that he is locked into a repeated behaviour that consists of defying a court order to stay away from the school concerned, and that is that behaviour that keeps getting him jailed for contempt of court. This account of mine might be garbled, but isn’t it basically what is going on?
Meanwhile, the legality of the court order that he is defying isn’t get tested by an appeal to the next level of court up from that in which the dubious order was made.
I admire Mr Burke’s courage, but I suspect that his legal team might not be giving him the best advice they could, or that he is ignoring their advice.
He is using the system to make a point. Straight out of Alinsky’s ‘Rules for Radicals’!