A teacher dismissed in a row over transgender pronouns has been arrested after he returned to the school.
It came after he spent three months in prison after ignoring a court’s restrictions.
Enoch Burke, previously jailed after failing to observe a court injunction banning him from attending Wilson’s Hospital school in Co Westmeath, Ireland, when he was suspended from work, was informed last Friday of his dismissal from his position as teacher.
The evangelical Christian was suspended from work on full pay last year pending the outcome of a disciplinary process, after a number of incidents stemming from the transgender row.
Mr Burke voiced on several occasions his opposition to a request from the secondary school’s principal to address a transgender child by their name and refer to them by the pronoun ‘they’.
Subsequent events led to his suspension from his job at Wilson’s Hospital.
In a letter to him which emerged over the weekend, the student council told him his ongoing attendance at the school was causing huge disruption, was affecting learning and was a daily reminder to its LGBTQI+ students of the prejudice they experienced.
However, Mr Burke returned to the Westmeath secondary school yesterday – not just once, but twice.
A family member issued a statement on his behalf on Friday, saying he had been dismissed. This came after a formal disciplinary hearing earlier in the week.
However, Mr Burke turned up at the school on Tuesday. He told reporters outside he was there to work.
Enoch Burke was told he was dismissed from his post at the school on Friday.
Uniformed gardai were called to the school and Mr Burke was arrested a short time later and driven to Mullingar Garda station.
He first pulled up at the gates in a car driven by his father shortly after 8.30am.
Uniformed gardaí arrived at the school in an unmarked car at around 11.15am and were met at the door by school principal Frank Milling.
Mr Burke was arrested in the school courtyard and was taken to Mullingar Garda Station at around 12.30pm.
But after he was released by the gardaí at around 2pm, he was driven by his father straight back to the school.
The school gates had been closed by then, and while standing outside he gave his account of events to reporters.
He told reporters he had earlier been ‘wrongfully’ arrested for trespass.
‘It’s not trespassing to turn up at your place of work, that’s absolutely not trespassing,’ he said.He claimed the ‘purported disciplinary meeting’ and the resulting ‘purported dismissal’ was not due to take effect for months, and said he was still a school employee.
‘All of this is simply because I won’t accept transgenderism,’ he said.
‘It’s absolutely preposterous and very, very sad. It’s really terrible and it’s very, very wrong. And that’s why I am here.’
He added: ‘I’m here to work, here to do my work, as every teacher in the country and every civil servant and every employee has an absolute right to do.’
He continued: ‘And then when it comes to “likely to cause fear”, that is an absolutely preposterous statement.
‘It’s absolutely reprehensible that I would ever do such a thing, that I would ever put fear into anybody.’
During protracted legal hearings last year, it was heard that the school accused Mr Burke of confronting the principal at a school event in June, which led the principal to raise ‘concerns’ about his future behaviour.
The principal then compiled a report last August, which led to the disciplinary process.
Mr Burke was later committed to Mountjoy Prison in Dublin by a High Court judge after he breached a temporary court order to stay away from his workplace.
He was released from prison in December and resumed attending the school despite the continued injunction.
The disciplinary hearing involving Mr Burke that took place last week related to alleged gross misconduct at the school.
The school has been approached for comment.
A Garda spokesman said: ‘A male was arrested under the Public Order Act 1994 and taken to Mullingar Garda Station.
‘He has subsequently been released pending the submission of a file to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.’
