Burke’s action over newspaper report to be heard next week

Jailed teacher Enoch Burke’s High Court defamation action over a Sunday Independent report when he was in prison for contempt for the first time in 2022 is to be heard next week.

Mr Burke is currently detained in Mountjoy Prison over his refusal to comply with court orders not to attend Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath, which dismissed him over what he says was standing up for his religious beliefs over transgenderism.

His appeal against his dismissal remains pending.

Yesterday, he appeared before Mr Justice David Nolan by video link from prison, when a date was set for his defamation action against Mediahuis Ireland, publisher of the Sunday Independent.

Mediahuis, which is also publisher of the Irish Independent,

denies defamation and pleads fair and reasonable publication on a matter of public interest.

The newspaper ran a story about Mr Burke on October 9, 2022, during his first period in jail for contempt and before he was released with €700 daily fines imposed on him instead of imprisonment.

When he returned to the school, he was jailed for a second time for contempt last September.

The case will be heard by a judge sitting alone rather than before a judge and jury.

In a pretrial application before Mr Justice Nolan, Mr Burke raised his objections to certain material, including matters referred to by the defendants in their legal submissions, being considered by the judge hearing the action.

Mr Burke claimed that this material, which he argued amounted to evidence, was prejudicial to his case.

His application was opposed by the defendants, represented by Ronan Lupton SC, for Mediahuis.

Ruling on the matter, the judge said he was satisfied that some of the material referred to by Mr Burke should not go before the court until the day of the hearing, and should not be lodged with the court in advance of the trial.

However, he said the defendant’s legal submissions can be considered by the trial judge.

Mr Justice Nolan said he was satisfied that as the matter was not before a jury, any judge considering the case would be fully aware that legal submissions cannot be considered as evidence in the case.

Mr Burke expressed his unhappiness with the court’s finding regarding submissions.

Mr Justice Nolan told him he was free to renew his application before the judge hearing the case.