Sacked teacher Enoch Burke has not ruled out returning to Wilson’s Hospital School in September and described the €88,900 in fines he has racked up for contempt of court as “oppression”.
Mr Burke today made the trek from Castlebar in Co Mayo to the school in Multyfarnham in Co Westmeath for the final day of term despite a daily fine of €700 imposed upon him by the High Court on January 27.

The board of management of Wilson’s Hospital School secured orders against Mr Burke last August and September after he continued to show up “to work” at its premises despite being suspended pending the outcome of a disciplinary process. The High Court granted the school a permanent injunction last month prohibiting Mr Burke from entering onto its premises and awarded the school €15,000 in damages for trespass.

Burke, an evangelical Christian, had refused on religious grounds to comply with a request from the school’s then principal to call a transgender child by a new name and by “they/them” pronouns, clashing on a number of occasions with school management over the issue.

[Now, that’s a stubborn Irishman. What a dystopian, fascist state they’ve become. ~ Beege]