Teacher who was jailed after classroom row over transgender pupil and refusing to ‘name a boy a lady’ can be joined in jail by his father after courtroom scuffle

A Christian ex-teacher jailed after a row over his refusal to address a transgender pupil as ‘they’ has been joined in prison by his father.

Enoch Burke has spent more than 450 days behind bars in Ireland for contempt of court, having repeatedly refused to stay away from his former school in accordance with a court order.

Now his father Seán has also been jailed for two months for assaulting a policewoman.

His imprisonment arose from a scuffle at Dublin’s Court of Appeal on March 7 last year, when his son lost a case he had taken against his suspension from Wilson’s Hospital School.

Seán Burke, who is in his 60s, was jailed on Tuesday after he rejected the chance of a suspended sentence by refusing to sign a bond stating that he would be of good behaviour and keep the peace for one year.

His daughter, Ammi, 33, was cleared of obstructing another Irish police officer during the same incident, which saw his wife Martina escorted from the hearing for shouting at judges.

The Irish Prison Service would not confirm which jail Seán Burke will attend, but a source familiar with court procedures said it was normal practice for prisoners to spend the start of their sentence in Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison, where his son is being held.

Cloverhill District Court in Dublin heard that police officer Victoria Fisher was grabbed, knocked down and hit a radiator, during the incident which resulted in bruising.

Even though he had been spared a criminal record, Seán Burke unsuccessfully attempted to quash a guilty verdict delivered in the District Court in May. 

Judge Ronan Munro referred to the uncontested evidence that Seán Burke shouted at the officers to leave his wife alone. 

He did not accept the knocking down of the policewoman was accidental, and held that there was an intentional application of force.

The judge imposed a two-month sentence, but, noting the father’s lack of prior convictions, said he would suspend it on condition he keep the peace and be of good behaviour for one year.

However, he refused to sign the peace bond, at which point the judge said he would serve the sentence.

Seán Burke, who had represented himself and did not accept the verdict, shook hands with and hugged his other son, Dr Isaac Burke, before being led into custody.

In his ruling, Judge Munro said the officers had a duty to restore order following several interruptions by members of the Burke family. 

He rejected arguments that the police dealing with the courtroom ‘chaos’ had no legal authority to remove them.

The judge commented: ‘Members of the public, including visiting schoolchildren, were forced to witness those scenes in a court of law, which I regard as offensive scenes.’

In evidence, Seán Burke said he had respect for the police and the courts, but was shocked at a remark by the Court of Appeal judge that his son Enoch had been talking in ‘soundbites’ or that the proceedings were not about transgenderism.

He said his family ‘raised an objection, we spoke and objected to this’, adding that he had affirmed the objection.

He said he was concerned when his wife was removed from the courtroom and went after her, but it was in a narrow, congested aisle, and he did not see Ms Fisher due to the height disparity between them. He rejected the assault allegation outright.

Ammi Burke, a qualified solicitor, was earlier fined €400 (£330) and convicted of obstructing a garda by putting her hand on him for a few seconds as he helped arrest her brother Simeon Burke, 25, who was brought ‘flailing’ from the courtroom.

Yesterday, she succeeded in her appeal because Judge Munro had a reasonable doubt she had directly obstructed the arrest of her brother, given the fast-moving situation.

After being cleared, Ammi had to be escorted from the proceedings because she interrupted Judge Munro as he delivered his decision in her father’s case.

School bosses began an investigation into Enoch Burke’s conduct in May 2022 over his refusal on calling a transgender pupil ‘they’, insistent on referring to them as ‘he‘.

The German and history teacher was suspended on paid leave until the outcome of an internal disciplinary process.

But he refused to stay away, instead arriving and sitting in an empty classroom at the school, saying he was there to teach.

The school’s board of management obtained a court order preventing him from teaching or being physically present at the premises.

When Enoch Burke turned up again, he was arrested for breaching the order and hauled before a court where he was jailed for contempt in September 2022.

He previously told the High Court in Dublin: ‘I would not call a boy a girl.’ He added: ‘Transgenderism is against my Christian belief. It is contrary to the scriptures, contrary to the ethos of the Church of Ireland and of my school.

‘It’s insanity that I will be led from this courtroom to a place of incarceration, but I will not give up my Christian beliefs.’

It is not the first time the evangelical Christian Burke family have courted controversy. 

In 2021 Enoch Burke and three of his nine siblings lost a court case against the University of Galway over a decision to ban them from membership of college societies for life.

The court heard Ammi, Enoch, Isaac and Kezia Burke distributed flyers which implicitly connected gay marriage to paedophilia and incest.

All ten children were home schooled by their mother, Martina Burke, who runs the Burke Christian School in Castlebar.

Enoch Burke’s case comes back before the High Court in Dublin for review on Friday.