The High Court has been told that gardai were called to a school in Co Westmeath this morning, after a security guard asked former teacher Enoch Burke not to enter the premises.
Lawyers for Wilson's Hospital School were updating the court this morning, after a judge asked the school last month to consider employing private security.
The school asked the court in September to direct the arrest and imprisonment of Mr Burke as he continued to attend the school in breach of a court order directing him to stay away.
Mr Burke said he is still an employee of the school as his appeal against his dismissal is still outstanding.
He successfully challenged the inclusion of the ASTI’s general secretary Kieran Christie on the appeal panel.
The court heard today that he is now objecting to Mr Christie’s replacement.
Mr Burke has already spent more than 500 days in prison for contempt of court since the case first came to court three years ago.
Last month, Mr Justice David Nolan refused to jail him again, saying this would give him more publicity.
Instead, he increased his daily fine for contempt of court to €2,000 and asked the school to consider what other remedies it had open to it.
This morning, barrister Rosemary Mallon, for the school said the board of management had given careful consideration to engaging private security.
The court heard they had been given a quote for €763 a week but she said this expenditure would be very difficult for the school. Ms Mallon said they were seeking a grant from the Department of Education to fund the private security and were awaiting a response.
However, she said, in the meantime because of the "extraordinary, protracted litigation", and the ongoing contempt of court by Mr Burke, the school had engaged the private security company and that a security guard started yesterday morning.
Security guard recognised Burke in car
Ms Mallon told Mr Justice Cregan that yesterday morning, the security guard had recognised Mr Burke in a car and attempted to halt it.
However, she said the car didn’t stop. She said it drove into the school premises, Mr Burke got out and went into the school where he remained for the day.
Ms Mallon said he was asked to leave but refused and although gardaí were called they did not attend.
This morning, Ms Mallon said the car was stopped, but Mr Burke got out and walked into the grounds.
She said the security guard had asked him not to enter the school, the gardaí were called and had attended the scene.
Mr Burke himself was not in court. However, his brother Isaac and father Sean were present. Isaac Burke told the court it was incorrect to say the car was asked to halt and did not stop.
Ms Mallon described the situation for the school as "unprecedented" and said the school would need time to clarify if the employment of a security guard would "aid or inflame" the situation.
She said it was the very last thing a school wanted to do. Ms Mallon told the judge the school wanted to educate students and did not want to deal with an individual who would not obey the rule of law, but she said that was the situation they found themselves in.
Mr Justice Cregan said the fine owed by Mr Burke for contempt of court had been crystallised in September at €225,000 but he was concerned about the proportionality of such a large fine.
He said he was considering making Mr Burke liable for the weekly cost of the security guard at the school.
The judge also said the school should consider if Mr Burke’s failure to stop when asked to do so by security constituted a criminal offence of "forcible entry".
And he said if he was being aided and abetted by other people in this, then consideration should be given to an application to have their assets sequestered.
Ms Mallon also told the court the school had no control over when Mr Burke’s appeal against his dismissal would be heard. She said they had written to the Disciplinary Appeals Panel last month and earlier this month but had not received a date. The judge asked her to communicate again and to tell them that the court had requested a reply before next week.
Mr Burke won his case to have the general secretary of the teacher’s union the ASTI Mr Christie removed from the panel. The court heard he made an application that Mr Christie’s replacement should recuse themselves on 15 September.
The judge refused to allow Isaac Burke to represent his brother in court and said he did not know why Enoch Burke had not come to court.
Mr Justice Cregan said the only person violating the law was Enoch Burke.
He said there was no doubt that the issue of using they/them pronouns for a student was the cause of the row with the school.
But he said Mr Burke had abandoned his substantive case on that issue, referring to Mr Burke’s refusal to come back to court in March 2023, after being ordered to leave by the judge for interrupting and refusing to abide by a court ruling on the disclosure of documents.
Isaac Burke told the judge today his brother’s case was not over, "much as you may wish it to be".
The matter will be back in court again on 22 October.
