Burke mother and sister could face jail or fine for contempt of court

Enoch Burke’s sister and mother will find out next week if they are to be sent to prison or fined for contempt of court.

Martina and Ammi Burke appeared in the High Court in Dublin on Wednesday after they were removed from the same court during a hearing on Friday.

That hearing was in relation to a temporary injunction Mr Burke had sought against a Disciplinary Appeals Panel (DAP) body that was reviewing the decision to dismiss him from Wilson’s Hospital School.

Mr Burke had himself had been removed from the same court earlier in the day and returned to Mountjoy Prison.

On Wednesday, Mr Justice Brian Cregan told the two women they could make submissions in their defence and warned them they could face prison or fines if he found them in contempt of court.

He said they had been “shouting and roaring” during the hearing on Friday, refused to sit down and interrupted Rosemary Mallon, the barrister representing the bord of Wilson’s Hospital School

During her heated speech, Martina Burke shouted, hit the desk on front of her and waved a copy of the Irish constitution at the bench.

She described her son as an “upright, genuine, sincere, godly teacher” and claimed he had been “denied his constitutional rights”.

She said there was “blood dripping from the hands of the judiciary” in relation to her son’s imprisonment.

Mr Cregan responded saying: “You know perfectly well he is not in prison for his beliefs, he is in prison for trespass.”

Adding: “he would not be in prison for a single day” if he had protested outside the school gates.

Ammi Burke said she “won’t sit silently by while my brother’s constitutional rights are being denied”.

Mr Cregan said to her, as a solicitor, she should know “it is completely unacceptable” to interfere with court proceedings and “you know perfectly well the rules of representation”.

Six members of the Burke family were in court for the hearing, with Enoch Burke watching on via video link.

Mr Cregan said he would deliver his ruling on the matter next Wednesday.

The long-running legal dispute between the board of management of the Co Westmeath school and Mr Burke stems from incidents over a request in 2022 from the school’s then-principal to address a student by a new name and pronoun.

Mr Burke, an Evangelical Christian who taught German and history at the school, has repeatedly argued that the direction was unconstitutional and went against his right to express his religious beliefs.

He has been imprisoned at Mountjoy Prison over contempt of court relating to breaches of orders not to trespass at the school.