Jennifer O’Connell: Jailed teacher Enoch Burke might have done us all a favour

It is hard to imagine a more unlikely alliance than the one which spontaneously coalesced online in support of Enoch Burke, the teacher from Mayo in Mountjoy this weekend after he refused to comply with an injunction preventing him from turning up at the school where he is employed.

His improbable collection of supporters includes an organisation which claims to offer “a space to speak about women’s sex-based rights” and a man described by the New York Times as the “custodian of the patriarchy”.

Burke, it is fair to say, might not strike the casual observer as the most obvious figurehead for an online movement – let alone one encompassing both gender critical feminists and self-help gurus beloved of angst-ridden teenage boys. And yet this week his case was taken up on social media by the Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson and the tabloid editor and professional Meghan Markle-baiter Piers Morgan. It was simultaneously the subject of supportive tweets by the gender-critical organisations Genspect and by Women’s Space Ireland.

[ Teacher Enoch Burke jailed over contempt of court order not to attend school ]

Burke is one of 10 adult children of Martina and Seán Burke, a family who have become notorious for their academic achievements, their unconventional upbringing and – undoubtedly the most significant reason for their recent infamy – their pursuit of a number of high-profile legal actions.

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Enoch Burke is the author of The Hedonism and Homosexuality of John Piper and Sam Allberry: The Truth of Scripture. “He reminds one of earnest contenders from bygone generations who felt that dangerous trends need warned against,” goes one approving five star review on Amazon. A one-star reviewer calls the book “nasty” and “self-righteous”.

His current impasse with his employer began when he refused to address a child attending the school – though notably not in any of his own classes – who was gender transitioning as “they”. He interrupted an anniversary service to voice his objections in front of the school community, and pursued the school principal at a meal afterwards. He was subsequently suspended and when he refused to abide by the terms of that suspension, ended up in the High Court.

In the rush to make his imprisonment a culture wars issue, there seems to have been an unspoken agreement not to let key facts get in the way of the narrative. So first, those facts.

The jailing of Enoch Burke is not because of pronouns. It is not about transgenderism. It is not about his religious or political beliefs. It is not, as he tried to claim, “because I would not call a boy a girl”. It is not, as Genspect hyperbolically claimed, “a global issue” or “the fruit of a poisonous tree”. The group acknowledged that Burke was in jail for contempt of court, but went on to claim “this case is rooted in the fact that the teacher’s beliefs prevented him from calling a student they/them”.

[ Enoch Burke set to be moved into main prisoner population in Mountjoy Prison ]

Suspended on full pay

Jordan Peterson shared a post to his 4.3 million followers on Instagram. “I said very clearly in 2016 that the first people jailed for “pronoun misuse” would be dragged through the courts and then hit with contempt charges. ‘Nobody will be jailed for pronouns’ was the reaction. Wrong.” Piers Morgan chimed in that the detention of Burke was a “a ridiculous farce. How can anyone believe this is right in a supposedly free, democratic society?”

But this is precisely how democratic society works. We are free to believe whatever we like, but we are not free to behave as we like.

Enoch Burke is in Mountjoy solely and exclusively because of the actions of Enoch Burke. He was sent there until he agreed to obey an order not to attend or attempt to teach any classes at Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath, where he is suspended on full pay.

The issue, said the judge, was the teacher’s refusal to comply with the terms of his suspension or the injunction obtained by the school. Burke said he would “only obey God”, and would “not obey man”. He was given the opportunity to purge his contempt, but refused to do so, and was sent back to Mountjoy where he declared he will stay for every hour of every day for the next 100 years, rather than compromise his beliefs or comply with the court order. But no one is asking him to change his beliefs, only his behaviour.

Burke’s co-opting of victimhood is typical of those who engage in what is offensively referred to as the “trans debate”. They see themselves as the oppressed even while they are punching down. And it is invariably punching down – these are typically well-resourced, educated, privileged people who come from a wide spectrum of political views. They may well have strong feelings about the subject – and even legitimate questions about things like the prescribing of puberty blockers or participation in sport – but too often, the overriding sense is that they are performing their outrage about an issue that is, for them, largely academic.

On the other side is a tiny proportion of the population, some of whom are happily living their lives far away from the moral panic, but others of whom are the most vulnerable and marginalised people in society, who struggle to access healthcare and are expected to row in to justify any aspect of the “transgender issue” anyone might choose to interrogate them about. For them, this is not an academic debate – how could it be when they’re frequently not even given a voice?

This week, despite his best efforts to the contrary, Enoch Burke may actually have done us all a favour by lifting the curtain on the manufactured outrage that is often at the heart of this so-called debate.

It was interesting how few of those most loudly indignant about his imprisonment seem to have spared a thought for the only person whose rights and dignity were actually at stake here. Hardly a word was spoken about the child at the centre of it.