“You’ll answer to God for jailing me for my religious beliefs” says teacher jailed for refusing to call a boy a girl

Enoch Burke, a teacher in Ireland, has been jailed for a third time after he was arrested outside the school that sacked him for refusing to “call a boy a girl.”

Mr Burke became caught up in a gender row at Wilson’s Hospital School in May 2022.

He told his headteacher that he “opposed transgenderism” due to his religious beliefs and stated he would not address a student, who was transitioning, by their new name and using “they” pronouns.

Burke publicly criticised the school’s demand that he use the student’s chosen pronouns.

It came following an email to staff from headteacher Niamh McShane, in which they were asked to address the pupil in question by their new pronouns.

He was first jailed in September 2022 and spent 100 days in prison before his release.

He was jailed for a second time in September 2023 in which he spent Christmas behind bars before he was released in June this year.

Now, Mr Burke, who is appealing his dismissal from the school, has been put in jail again for going to the school.

The Evangelical Christian teacher was yesterday, on September 2, placed inside a Garda (police) vehicle outside Wilson’s Hospital School in Ireland’s Co-Westmeath and driven to the Four Courts in Dublin, reported the Irish Independent.

He was put behind bars at Mountjoy Prison last night for repeatedly defying a High Court injunction banning him from the school’s grounds.

Justice Michael Quinn jailed him for contempt of court after the history and German teacher refused to give a “yes” or “no” answer when asked if he intended to return to the Westmeath school again.

As the order was passed, Mr Burke told Justice Quinn: “You will answer to God for imprisoning me for my religious beliefs.”

Mr Burke was sacked from the school for gross misconduct in January 2023 after he refused to use a transitioning pupil’s new name and chosen pronoun, saying it was against his religious beliefs.

Despite his dismissal, a court heard in February he was still being paid his salary pending his appeal against the school’s decision to sack him. At that time, he had been paid around €72,000 while still on administrative leave.

Justice Quinn said there was an “urgent requirement” for him to deal with the difficulties Wilson’s Hospital School has been experiencing, due to Mr Burke’s continued presence there.

He said Mr Burke was disrupting day-to-day activities and duties performed by teachers and staff in the school.

During the hearing, he and his family protested that the many judges who had dealt with the case had failed to deal with a report made by the then-school principal Niamh McShane.

Mr Burke said Ms McShane had claimed he was guilty of gross misconduct due to his refusal to call a transitioning student by a new name and the pronoun “they”. He said the legality of that demand was never considered by the court.

However, last year, Judge Owens found the school was right to suspend Mr Burke over fears of “harmful and disruptive conduct”.

He cited Mr Burke’s challenge to the principal during a staff meeting, a chapel service and a dinner.

Mr Burke yesterday insisted: “This court is simply denying me my religious beliefs, and my right to my religious beliefs. I am a Christian. I have Christian beliefs. My belief is male and female, God made them male and female.”

He quoted passages from the Bible, including Genesis and the Gospel of Matthew, and claimed teachers in Ireland were being “commanded to force transgenderism on students”.

He said this was a “hellish ideology” which resulted in children taking puberty blockers and being “scarred for life”.

He said his religious beliefs would not lead children “down the road of suicide, mutilations, regret” and a breakdown of relationships with their parents.

“I did not force my beliefs on anyone,” he said. “That belief was forced on me. I was commanded to feed that poison to young people in my care.”

The court heard Mr Burke has not paid €88,000 in fines he incurred for attending the school in defiance of the court order last year.

Rosemary Mallon BL, for the school, confirmed there were “difficulties” in collecting it.

She said the law allowed for a debt collection agency to recoup fines handed out in the District Court, but sequestration of assets was more generally used against a company rather than an individual, and there was no simple way to do it.

She confirmed Mr Burke is still being paid his salary by the Department of Education, while his appeal against his January 2023 dismissal remains on hold.

The court was told that appeal cannot be heard until the Court of Appeal rules on Mr Burke’s challenge concerning members of the appeal board.