The High Court has refused to grant an injunction to secondary school teacher Enoch Burke to stop a disciplinary hearing due to take place tomorrow.
The court made its decision because Mr Burke indicated this morning that he intends to continue to defy court orders granted against him.
Yesterday, Mr Justice Conor Dignam said Mr Burke had met the test to be granted the injunctions he sought as he had shown he had a strong case likely to succeed at trial.
But the judge said in light of Mr Burke's stated intention to continue attending Wilson's Hospital School in Co Westmeath, in breach of court orders, the balance of justice tipped against allowing the injunctions.
The judge had adjourned his final decision until this morning to give Mr Burke an opportunity to consider if he would comply with the injunctions granted against him last September.
Mr Burke told the judge he had won his application but it had been made conditional on him obeying orders asking him to agree to something flawed, fundamentally wrong and unconstitutional.
He said the original injunctions against him in August and in September had been granted in "five minutes". It was "quicker than the time you’d wait in Spar to get a chicken roll", he said.
He said Judge Dignam had given a lengthy judgment deliberating on the serious questions of law raised, but had made it all dependent on him accepting an abomination of a ruling with devastating implications for him.
Mr Burke said everyone knew the case was about transgenderism and was an attack on religious freedom, but the judges would not accept it.
He said justice was being withheld from him because he would not agree that the case was not about transgenderism. He said he could not accept that as it defied all logic.
The school and Mr Burke each asked for their costs in the matter. The judge said this was not a straightforward matter and asked for legal submissions on the issue.
The judge said he had anticipated that parties may wish to appeal the judgment to the Court of Appeal. It is not yet clear if that will happen.
Yesterday, Judge Dignam said the enforceability of court orders was a central plank of any system based on the rule of law.
He said people could not pick and choose when to comply with a court order based on their own assessment of the court’s correctness.
In his ruling, the judge said the injunctions granted to the school did not impact on Mr Burke’s religious rights and freedoms at all.
Judge Dignam said it was entirely open to Mr Burke to comply with the orders on the basis that he believed them to be wrong and the instruction of the principal to address a student by a new name and "they/them" pronouns to be invalid.
A further decision is due from the High Court within the next week on whether Mr Burke should be fined or have his assets temporarily seized for continuing to attend the school in defiance of the injunctions granted last year.
