The High Court has said that Enoch Burke and his family have engaged in the most deliberate, sustained and concerted attack on the civil courts and the rule of law in this country in recent times and has ordered Mr Burke's immediate imprisonment.
Mr Justice Brian Cregan was giving his judgment in an application by Wilson’s Hospital School to have Mr Burke arrested and jailed for continuing to breach a High Court order by trespassing on the school premises.
Judge Cregan said fines and the appointment of security guards had failed to stop Mr Burke and there was no other option left but to imprison him again.
The judge has also ruled that criminal contempt proceedings should be taken against Mr Burke as well as his brother Isaac, sister Ammi and mother, Martina for their conduct in court hearings.
In his ruling, Judge Cregan said his decision was not about transgenderism.
He said the court had not directed Mr Burke to refer to a pupil by a new pronoun or to do or say anything that might conflict with his religious beliefs.
The judge said Mr Burke had not been imprisoned or fined for his views on transgender issues, which he was perfectly entitled to have and to articulate. He said the court had simply directed that Mr Burke must not trespass on school premises as he had been dismissed from his position for gross misconduct.
The judge said this distinction was not difficult to understand and any of Mr Burke’s students from Transition Year up would understand it.
The judge ruled Mr Burke's arguments that a Court of Appeal decision in a related matter had undermined the orders made against him to stay away from the school were utterly without merit. He said if Mr Burke had wanted to appeal the court's orders, he should have done so at the appropriate time.
Judge Cregan said the school's submission that it just wanted to be a school was "poignant and powerful".
He said he had no doubt that Mr Burke's actions had caused a crisis among the pupils, teachers and Board of Management. Instead of concentrating on educating young people, he said they had to deal "with Mr Burke and his antics".
The judge said far too much attention had been focused on Mr Burke and not enough on the children and teachers.
He pointed out that the school had to hire security guards at a rate of €1,000 per week solely and exclusively to keep Mr Burke out. He said Mr Burke would rather this money was spent on keeping him out of the school rather than on the needs of pupils.
The judge described this as the "grotesque behaviour" of a teacher putting his own "ridiculous sense of himself" above the needs of his pupils. He said Mr Burke was willing to sacrifice the pupils of the school on the altar of his fanatical campaign against transgenderism.
The judge went on to describe Mr Burke's presence at the school as "deeply unsettling".
He said the former teacher went right into the heart of the school, roaming around its corridors and he described him as a "baleful and malign presence, an intruder, stalking the school, its teachers and its pupils".
The judge said this was part of Mr Burke's deliberate strategy of confrontation.
Judge Cregan said Mr Burke's verbal aggression in the school was one of the reasons he had been dismissed. And he said the verbal aggression by Mr Burke towards the court was unprecedented in his experience.
He took issue with a comment by Mr Burke at a previous hearing, where he told the judge to "wipe that smirk off your face". He said it was not normal behaviour to use such an expression to a High Court judge.
He said it showed Mr Burke had "an unbridled tongue" and difficulty regulating his anger. He said his verbal aggression, unregulated anger and lack of self-control along with his deliberate strategy of confrontation made him a potential danger to pupils and teachers at the school.
The judge also described Mr Burke as an utterly intransigent litigant who was so blinkered that he believed only he was right and everybody else was wrong. And he said it was not normal behaviour to call his opponents and judges liars at every opportunity.
He said it was clear Mr Burke and his family were intent upon a concerted, organised, and systematic campaign to undermine the proper functioning of the courts, going way beyond the issue of transgenderism. He said the court would not tolerate this level of abusive behaviour.
The judge pointed out that Mr Burke and his family were bound by the rule of law as every other citizen was. He said it was the role of the courts to adjudicate impartially where there clashes of constitutional rights. But he said Mr Burke would not accept this.
He said the Burkes were trespassing at the school as a form of political protest to draw attention to their campaign against transgenderism. They had a right to protest, he said, but not to breach court orders.
The judge pointed out that Mr Burke had no hesitation bringing court cases to vindicate his own rights, but would not abide by court decisions which went against him. He described this as an indefensible and unacceptable position.
Judge Cregan said it was not true to suggest, as the Burkes did, that they had a greater moral right or authority than the courts or that they had a God-given right to do what they do.
He said he would not take any lessons in religion from the Burkes and he said they had no monopoly on Christian values. He urged Mr Burke to reflect on Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount: "Do unto others as you would have them do onto you". Or to ponder his words "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and onto God, the things that are God's." He said these words were generally interpreted to mean that Christians should obey civil laws.
The judge described Mr Burke's assertion to a security guard that he had a right to be on school property as a "blatant lie" and his claim that he had not caused disruption as another "complete lie" as well as an extraordinary denial of the reality of the position. He said Mr Burke was entitled to his religious beliefs but not to his own reality.
The judge said his order committing Mr Burke to prison would be perfected today and he said the school’s solicitors should give it to An Garda Síochána to enforce. He ordered that the case should be reviewed by the High Court on 18 December, and ordered that Mr Burke should be produced from prison on that date.
He will give another ruling on other issues in the case including the possible temporary seizing of vehicles belonging to members of the Burke family, next week.
