The four of you will not be admitted to my courtroom
FOUR family members of jailed teacher Enoch Burke have been banned from physically attending a court hearing next week, when his continued incarceration in Mountjoy Prison will be reviewed.
During a heated High Court session yesterday, an emotional Enoch Burke – who was speaking from prison via videolink – branded Judge Mark Sanfey a ‘liar’, while his brother Dr Isaac Burke was physically removed from the courtroom by gardaí.
Enoch Burke was committed to Mountjoy for a second time last September for contempt-of-court orders that he stay away from the school where he used to teach, St Wilson’s Hospital in Co. Westmeath. His family say he has now spent more than 275 days behind bars.
Judge Sanfey said he asked the chancery court secretary to write on his behalf to Mr Burke’s mother Martina, father Seán, sister Ammi and brother Isaac earlier this week.
The letter, which he read aloud yesterday, said: ‘The court has directed that you are not to be admitted to the courtroom during the scheduled hearing [next Tuesday] without prior leave of the court, in circumstances where you are not a party to the application, having regard to your participation on previous occasions, [and] disruptive interruptions of other hearings before the High Court and Court of Appeal.’
The letter said they could apply for a remote link to follow the proceedings live, online.
It also said the court had taken account of the constitutional imperative for justice to be administered in public.
However, it said it was also important that court proceedings be conducted with decorum and in adherence to procedures, and that the court had the power to protect and control its own process.
The judge said he was giving the parties, who he would collectively refer to as ‘the Burkes’, the opportunity yesterday to make submissions as to why they should be permitted to attend physically.
He noted that on previous occasions, ‘I have had to rise from the bench on numerous occasions in order to remove those individuals from the courtroom, due to their disruptive behaviour’.
He said they had repeatedly shouted, interrupted proceedings and failed to follow court directions aimed at basic order.
‘On the last occasion, December 12, 2023, it was very clear to me that the Burkes arranged their outburst for maximum disruption of the proceedings in a tag-team arrangement,’ he added.
He said that at a minimum, he wanted the Burkes to give an undertaking that, if permitted to attend next week, they would each not address the court unless invited to do so, not interrupt, abide by any instructions and behave with decorum and respect.
Responding, Isaac Burke objected to the term ‘the Burkes’.
He said: ‘I take exception to that. We are not a collective. We are individuals. There are 12 members of my family and you have mis-stepped there, judge in labelling us all the Burkes.’
The judge said he had meant no discourtesy by the term, and that he was using it purely to be concise. Dr Burke said the proposal to keep him and his family members out of court was a ‘wholesale violation of the law’, as it was contrary to justice being administered in public, and had been made without prior warning to the parties.
Enoch Burke, who taught history and German, was imprisoned after he continuously defied a High Court order to stay away from his former workplace, resulting in disruption to staff and pupils.
Mr Burke was sacked in January 2023, following allegations that he had harassed the then-school principal, Niamh McShane. The dispute followed her request that he address a gender-transitioning pupil by a new name and the pronoun ‘they’ – something he refused to do, claiming it was against his religion. In a voice shaking with emotion, he said yesterday: ‘The reason you do not want my family in the courtroom, and indeed members of the public, is because you are lying about what this case is about. ‘You are lying about this, like your colleagues on the bench, from the beginning, refusing to acknowledge the very issue this case is about.’ Mr Burke said he had a copy of Ms McShane’s initial report, which, he said, confirmed he was being disciplined because he had expressed his views on transgenderism. He said the court was refusing to acknowledge this. Beginning to shout, Mr Burke said to the judge: ‘I am sitting in a jail cell because of it for a year now, and this has been going on for two years because you are a liar, that’s what you are. ‘You are a liar.’ Referring to the review of his incarceration next week, when he will be given the chance again to purge his contempt and walk free, he asked: ‘What do you want me to do on Tuesday? Is it to say I don’t have any right to my religious belief, is that what you are saying Mr Sanfey?’ He continued: ‘I did nothing wrong in that school. I was a good teacher.’ After further shouting, the judge muted Enoch Burke. He also said he would not respond to the ‘interrogation’ from Isaac Burke. Isaac Burke said he would not be ‘insulted’, and repeatedly insisted that the judge must withdraw the term ‘interrogation’. Judge Sanfey then rose and ordered that Isaac Burke be removed from the court by gardaí. On his return, the judge made the order barring the four Burke family members from physically attending the hearing next week. He added that in 36 years of legal practice, he had never been called a liar.
Burke family barred from hearing ‘Disruptive behaviour’ ‘We are not a collective’