Jailed teacher Enoch Burke will not be released for Christmas like he has been in the past, a High Court judge said on Wednesday.
Mr Justice Brian Cregan also said he did not intend to release him for Easter and he did not understand why he was released in the past during his previous four jailings for contempt.
Others in prison for contempt were not treated like this and let out even though they fail to purge their contempt, he said.
The judge gave Mr Burke a review date of March 3rd, but in the meantime he has liberty to apply to purge his contempt.
The judge also granted an order for Mr Burke to appear in person at a December 13th reconstituted disciplinary appeals panel hearing of his appeal against his dismissal from Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath.
He was suspended in 2022 and later dismissed following a public confrontation with the then-principal over an instruction to call a transgender student by a new name and with the pronouns “they/them”. He claims this amounted to a refusal to allow him exercise his constitutional and religious beliefs.
Burke’s father Sean (left) and his brother Isaac, outside the High Court in Dublin on Wednesday. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
He successfully challenged the make-up of the first appeals panel.
Mr Burke appeared in court late on Wednesday after being escorted in by a number of prison officers. His father Sean and brother Isaac were also in attendance.
Before proceedings began, the judge warned that any member of the Burke family will be asked to leave if they interrupt and that similar behaviour by Enoch would see him returned to prison and allowed to attend only by video link.
During recent court appearances, different members of the Burke family have been removed from court for disruptive behaviour.
On Wednesday, they remained quiet during an hour-long hearing, a substantial part of which was occupied by Mr Burke’s arguments about the meaning of specific words in Mr Justice Cregan’s recent judgment jailing him again for contempt.
Among the judge’s comments were that Mr Burke had “a baleful and malign presence – an intruder, stalking the school, its teachers and its pupils”.
There was also a level of “verbal aggression, unregulated anger and lack of self-control” making him a “a potential danger to pupils and teachers of the school”, he said.
The judge reserved his decision on Mr Burke’s request for him to delete these remarks. He and Mr Burke got into a prolonged argument about the meaning of certain words in those comments, including “baleful” and “stalking”.
Mr Burke handed up what he said was the Oxford English Dictionary meaning of certain words but when he did so the judge said it was not the Oxford English version. What Mr Burke submitted was “Oxford Languages” and not the authoritative version, he said.
“One needs to be more intellectually rigorous if you are asking me to set it aside,” the judge said.
The judge also awarded the legal costs of Wednesday’s hearing against Mr Burke.
He also agreed to a minor amendment to a previous judgment about requesting the Attorney General to bring criminal contempt proceedings against Mr Burke and other members of his family.
He said he hoped the Attorney could make a decision in two weeks. If he declined to bring such proceedings, the court would do so at its own motion.
