Enoch Burke owes over €208,000 in fines arising from school dispute

High Court Reporters

Schoolteacher Enoch Burke owes over €208,000 in fines arising from his breach of High Court orders banning him from his former place of work.

Judge Brian Cregan on Wednesday issued a judgment calculating outstanding fines owed by Enoch Burke, accrued during his four-year-long dispute with Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath.

Burke was ordered by the court not to trespass at the school in May 2023 after it held the school had validly suspended him from his teaching post.

Throughout the proceedings, several judges imposed fines on Enoch Burke at varying daily rates for every day he trespassed at the school.

In his judgment, Judge Cregan said the total fines accrued by Enoch Burke amounted to €273,200.

Burke has paid €64,931.82 in fines, although not voluntarily – following further court orders, a receiver was appointed over his salary, and separately, over €40,000 was seized from his bank account.

The total fines outstanding stands at €208,268.18, the judge held. He said Burke has “paid a very heavy price” for his refusal to obey court orders.

Wilson’s Hospital School suspended and later dismissed Enoch Burke over his conduct towards then-principal Niamh McShane at a school religious event in June 2022.

The confrontation arose in circumstances where McShane had earlier directed teachers to address a student by a new name and with the pronouns “they” and “them”.

Burke, an evangelical Christian, has maintained this request went against his religious beliefs.

When he continued to trespass at the school following his suspension, the school sought court orders banning him from the premises.

Burke has continuously breached the order banning him from the school.

He has spent over 700 days in prison in separate spells arising from his contempt of the court order banning him from the school.

Judge Cregan recently ordered Mr Burke’s release from Castlerea Prison despite his refusal to give a court undertaking not to trespass at the school.

The judge ordered the release for reasons including the “material change” in circumstances arising from the refusal of Burke’s appeal against his dismissal from the school for gross misconduct.

Burke is challenging the refusal of his appeal.

In Wednesday’s judgment, the judge said he had concerns about the proportionality of the fines relative to Enoch Burke’s income as a teacher.

However, the judge noted that he has refused to provide information on his assets, leaving the court unable to consider whether it should reduce the fines.

The judge concluded: “Mr Burke has paid a very heavy price for his refusal to obey court orders.

“He has been imprisoned for over 700 days; he has been fined over €273,000 (of which he has paid almost €65,000); he is also facing the enormous legal costs of the school (which I am told run into many hundreds of thousands of euro), and he is facing a disciplinary hearing before the Teaching Council,” the judge said.

“In short, he has wasted 700 days of his life in prison, his financial position has been undermined, and his reputation as a teacher damaged,” he said.