Judge bars family of Enoch Burke from attending court for hearing

A judge has made a formal order barring some members of sacked schoolteacher Enoch Burke’s family from attending court in person next week.

The move by Mr Justice Mark Sanfey comes on the back of a number of high-profile incidents during which members of the family have been asked to leave courtrooms or have been removed by gardaí due to the repeated interruption and heckling of judges.

It followed a further incident today in which Isaac Burke, a brother of the schoolteacher, was forcibly removed by gardaí after shouting at the judge.

Mr Burke is currently being held in Mountjoy Prison for contempt of a court order restraining him from entering the premises or grounds of Wilson’s Hospital School in Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath, where he taught history and German prior to being suspended in August 2022.

The matter has its root in his objection on religious grounds to addressing a transgender student by a new name and they/them pronouns.

The school’s board of management sacked him in January last year, but is appealing his dismissal.

Mr Burke’s continued incarceration is due to be reviewed by the High Court next Tuesday.

In a letter sent to some members of the Burke family, a well-known group of evangelical Christians from Castlebar, Co Mayo, on February 19, they were informed Mr Justice Sanfey had barred them from admission to his courtroom for the review hearing without prior leave of the court.

The letter said they could be provided with a link to watch the proceedings online.

In a letter to the judge’s registrar, signed by Mr Burke’s parents Sean and Martina and siblings Ammi and Isaac, the Burkes claimed the direction was not lawful and should be rescinded.

“The constitutional requirement that justice be administered in public is an essential guarantee of a courts system to which members of the public may have access as of right. Interference with that right is a solemn matter,” the letter said.

The matter was mentioned at an online hearing of the court today, to allow the Burkes to make submissions on the direction.

Isaac Burke attended in the Four Courts in person, notwithstanding the judge’s direction, saying he wanted to be heard.

After hearing from Isaac Burke, the judge said he was not going to respond to the “interrogation” he had been subjected to. This provoked an angry response from Isaac Burke who started to shout at the judge.

Mr Justice Sanfey rose from the bench and ordered Isaac Burke be removed by gardaí.

Isaac Burke refused to leave of his own accord and was escorted out by four gardaí.

His brother Enoch, who appeared via video link from Mountjoy, had also shouted at the judge and waved papers around, calling the judge “a liar”.

Mr Justice Sanfey directed his sound be muted.

When the judge returned to the courtroom following the ejection of Isaac Burke, he made a formal order barring Sean, Martina, Ammi and Isaac Burke from attending in person at the review hearing on Tuesday.

The judge said he had “hoped for some civilised discourse” and that undertakings would be given that, if allowed into the courtroom, Sean, Martina, Ammi and Isaac Burke would behave with decorum and not speak unless spoken to.

“In 36 years of practice I have never been called nor has it been suggested of me that I am a liar, nor has that been said of any other judge,” Mr Justice Sanfey said.

Enoch Burke has now spent a total of 275 days behind bars for contempt, having several times refused to purge his contempt by giving undertakings to abide by court orders.

At the most recent review of his detention, on December 12 last, Mr Justice Sanfey had to rise from the bench on five occasions due to constant interruptions from members of Mr Burke’s family.

By the end of that hearing, the schoolteacher, his parents and siblings Ammi and Isaac had all been ejected from the courtroom by gardaí, at the direction of the judge.

On that occasion Mr Justice Sanfey said the “tag-team nature” of the interruptions was notable.

“This was done in an orchestrated way to cause maximum disruption,” he said.

“It will not be tolerated, in the same way the flouting of orders of this court will not be tolerated.”

During the hearing, Mr Burke repeatedly refused to give a “yes” or “no” answer when asked by the judge if he was willing to purge is contempt.

Instead he persisted with a prepared speech in which he criticised several judges who had dealt with aspects of the dispute.

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