Enoch Burke’s fines rise to €22,400 as he turns up to school once again

The controversial teacher arrived at Wilson’s Hospital School in Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath, at around 8.40am.

He is still in defiance of court orders not to be at the school.

A €700-a-day fine has now been rolling for 32 days, meaning that if he does not discontinue his actions his fines will rise to more than €25,000 by the end of this week.

The High Court is expected to review the imposition of the fines tomorrow, with a hearing scheduled before Mr Justice Brian O’Moore.

The issue had initially been due to be reviewed on February 10, but this was postponed due to pressure on the court’s list.

Mr Justice O’Moore said last month that if the daily fine imposed on Mr Burke “does not have the desired effect, it can always be increased”.

The judge previously ruled out further imprisonment or the sequestration of Mr Burke’s assets, the two other options available to the court for dealing with ongoing contempt.

Last week the Irish Independent reported that Burke appears to have sabotaged his chances of winning an appeal against High Court orders after turning up at his former workplace despite being warned by the President of the Court of Appeal that it may not deliver a decision if there was further “egregious conduct” by him.

Mr Justice George Birmingham warned last Thursday week that it would consider appeals of just two of the four High Court decisions Mr Burke was seeking to challenge, but that a decision on the merits was “very much in Mr Burke’s hands”.

The three-judge court made the decision to limit what it would consider after the dismissed schoolteacher refused to say if he would stay away from Wilson’s Hospital School pending the delivery of its ruling.

Mr Burke has continued to go to its premises each school day despite first being suspended and later dismissed from his job there as a teacher of history and German.

He spent 108 days in prison last year for contempt of court orders and is currently being fined for each day he remains in contempt.

His suspension last August came after Mr Burke, an evangelical Christian, refused to comply with a request from the then principal to call a transgender pupil by a new name and by their preferred pronouns.

He was sacked last month but a tribunal will hear an appeal of his dismissal in April.

The teacher is not appealing the order which resulted in his imprisonment.

Instead he is asking the Court of Appeal to set aside a temporary injunction granted by Ms Justice Siobhan Stack last August restraining him from attending for work, and a subsequent decision of Mr Justice Max Barrett last September to keep the injunction in place pending a final hearing of the matter.

These decisions will be considered by the Court of Appeal.

But two other subsequent High Court decisions, made by Mr Justice Conor Dignam and Ms Justice Eileen Roberts, will not.

These include the dismissal of an application brought by Mr Burke aimed at setting aside his suspension.

Outlining his appeal, Mr Burke claimed the orders restraining him from turning up at the school were “unlawful”, “unconstitutional” and had no legal effect.

He referred to articles of the Constitution regarding freedom to practice religious beliefs and homage to God.

Mr Justice Birmingham, sitting with Mr Justice John Edwards and Ms Justice Máire Whelan, said last Thursday week the court was “unimpressed Mr Burke won’t offer any assurance” regarding his future conduct.

After rising to consider whether it would hear the appeal at all, the judge said the court would consider his challenge to orders restraining him from turning up at the school but would not consider what he described as “positive” orders being sought by Mr Burke.

Mr Justice Birmingham also warned that the court may not deliver a decision in the appeal at all if there was further “egregious conduct” by Mr Burke, a reference to his ongoing contempt of court by going to the school.

“Whether there will be a decision on the merits will be very much in Mr Burke’s hands,” said Mr Justice Birmingham.