Prison authorities have been directed to bring schoolteacher Enoch Burke to the central office of the High Court on Tuesday so he may, should he wish, initiate an action against a disciplinary appeals panel.
Mr Justice David Nolan said on Monday that it would be a matter for Mr Burke to decide if he wished to seek a further production order allowing him to deal with any matter before the panel which has decided to reconvene on this coming Saturday to further consider Burke’s complaints against it.
Judge Nolan told Burke’s brother Isaac, who brought Monday’s application on behalf of Enoch, that the office would be open between 10am and 4pm to deal with any matter that may arise before another duty judge on Tuesday.
Earlier Judge Nolan had directed that members of An Garda Siochana attend his court at 2pm when, he said, he would deal with the application brought on behalf of Enoch Burke, who is in prison for repeated breaching of a court order directing him not to trespass at the school where he used to work.
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Burke’s brother, Isaac, and his sister, Ammi appeared in the High Court just before lunch insisting the court hear an ex parte application by them seeking a production order so that their brother Enoch could attend and represent himself.
When Judge Nolan said he would consider the matter over lunch and discuss with the High Court’s chief registrar whether it was appropriate for the court to entertain the application, Mr Burke repeatedly kept telling the court it was urgent.
Judge Nolan said he intended dealing with a family law matter and would sit again at 2pm, directing that the gardaí be notified. He told Burke he would not “put up with any more of your nonsense” and directed, before rising, that the court be cleared for the in camera family law matter.
Enoch Burke has spent Christmas in prison for repeatedly breaching court orders. He has been challenging the legality of a decision dismissing him from his position at Wilson’s Hospital School.
Mr Burke kept turning up at the school and refused to stop trespassing, despite the injunctions granted against him, fines totalling hundreds of thousands of euro levelled against him and the school’s employment of security guards to keep him out.
Before being jailed again in November for breaching the order to stop trespassing, Mr Burke repeatedly insisted he was attending at his place of work and had a right to be there.
A disciplinary appeals panel finally heard his appeal against his dismissal, but is reconvening with regard to the matter. Burke has spent just under 600 days in prison on foot of contempt of court orders.
The dispute with Wilson’s Hospital School, where he taught, started when the then principal asked teachers to use a new name and they/them pronouns for a pupil.
On Monday, Judge Nolan stated that Mr Isaac Burke had no right of audience before the court on behalf of his brother but allowed him to make the application and decided to grant a production order limited to his being brought before the court’s central office on Tuesday.
He directed that the disciplinary appeals panel be notified of Mr Burke’s intentions.
