Irish teacher at centre of transgender row imprisoned again

A Christian teacher on the centre of a long-running dispute with a faculty over his refusal to make use of preferred pronouns has been imprisoned for a 3rd time.

Enoch Burke was arrested on Monday after defying a court order to keep away from Wilson’s Hospital School in County Westmeath, Ireland. 

A judge on the High Court in Dublin ordered that he be returned to Mountjoy Prison for contempt. 

Burke has been imprisoned twice before after continuing to show up at the varsity despite court orders to remain away.

He was suspended by the varsity in August 2022 after he refused to make use of a transgender pupil’s latest name and “they” pronoun. The school sought court orders to maintain him off the campus after he continued to show up saying he was able to teach. 

He was imprisoned in Mountjoy in September 2022 after refusing to abide by a court order barring him from entering the varsity premises.

He was later released but sent back to the Dublin prison last September after continuing to show up at the varsity. He was freed this June but was warned to not attend the varsity because the court order remained in place. 

Burke defied the court order again, arriving at the varsity on 22 August for the beginning of the brand new term.

He has to date spent over 400 days in prison and admitted that life behind bars is “very difficult”. He told Sky News that he was upholding his religious freedom. 

“I teach everyone who’s in front of me. I teach each student,” he said. 

“But once I am commanded, when I’m told that I am unable to have my religious belief anymore, when I’m told I even have to admit belief in transgenderism, as an alternative of my easy belief, which is female and male, that is only a breach simply of my rights.”

The case is to be reviewed on 11 October.