Enoch Burke

Teacher Enoch Burke turned up at Wilson's Hospital School this morning, in defiance of a court order, as the Co Westmeath school reopened after the ...

He said he had previously made a similar application for an injunction regarding the disciplinary meeting before a different judge. “I came to school this morning to teach and I was standing in the corridor for the day. He said the orders did not oblige Mr Burke to address anyone in a particular way. On those occasions he ended up sitting in an empty classroom and students were brought to another room for their lessons. As these matters refer to a civil order, An Garda Síochána has no role at this time. Mr Justice O’Moore also said that complying with the orders would not in any way compromise or require Mr Burke to do anything in breach of his religious beliefs. However, that application was not ruled on after the school gave an undertaking to the court that it would pause the disciplinary process and only restart it on notice to Mr Burke. His first attendance at the school came a day after he had sought a High Court injunction preventing the school from holding a disciplinary meeting to consider allegations of misconduct against him. Mr Burke appeared before a vacation sitting of the High Court on Wednesday where he secured permission from Ms Justice Siobhan Stack, on an ex-parte basis, to serve short notice of the injunction application on Wilson’s Hospital School. Speaking as he left the school this evening, Mr Burke said he had a right to his religious beliefs. Earlier, in a message to parents, Frank Milling, the recently appointed principal of the Church of Ireland diocesan boarding school in Multyfarnham, said classes had continued as normal despite the repeated attendance of Mr Burke at the premises. Mr Burke faces the possibility of being returned to prison by the High Court after spending a second day at the Co Westmeath school since it reopened after the Christmas holidays.