Irish teacher at centre of transgender row imprisoned again

Enoch Burke

A Christian teacher at the centre of a long-running dispute with a school over his refusal to use preferred pronouns has been imprisoned for a third time.

Enoch Burke was arrested on Monday after defying a court order to stay away from Wilson's Hospital School in County Westmeath, Ireland. 

A judge at the High Court in Dublin ordered that he be returned to Mountjoy Prison for contempt. 

Burke has been imprisoned twice before after continuing to turn up at the school despite court orders to stay away.

He was suspended by the school in August 2022 after he refused to use a transgender pupil's new name and "they" pronoun. The school sought court orders to keep him off the campus after he continued to turn up saying he was ready to teach. 

He was imprisoned in Mountjoy in September 2022 after refusing to abide by a court order barring him from entering the school premises.

He was later released but sent back to the Dublin prison last September after continuing to turn up at the school. He was freed this June but was warned not to attend the school as the court order remained in place. 

Burke defied the court order again, arriving at the school on 22 August for the start of the new term.

He has so far spent over 400 days in prison and admitted that life behind bars is "very difficult". He told Sky News that he was upholding his religious freedom. 

"I teach everyone who's in front of me. I teach every single student," he said. 

"But when I am commanded, when I'm told that I can't have my religious belief anymore, when I'm told I have to confess belief in transgenderism, instead of my simple belief, which is male and female, that's just a breach simply of my rights."

The case is to be reviewed on 11 October.

News
Fear and silence grip Colombian hamlet after eight Christians vanish
Fear and silence grip Colombian hamlet after eight Christians vanish

A Colombian hamlet is gripped by fear following the forced disappearance of eight residents - seven of them Protestant church leaders and members - after responding to orders issued by a guerrilla group earlier this month.

A decade of bloodshed: NGO report reveals more than 20,000 Christians slain in south-east Nigeria
A decade of bloodshed: NGO report reveals more than 20,000 Christians slain in south-east Nigeria

More than 20,000 Christians have reportedly been brutally killed over the past decade across south-east Nigeria, according to a disturbing report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), a Catholic-inspired human rights organisation.

Cardiff Council refuses to remove logo from church advertisements
Cardiff Council refuses to remove logo from church advertisements

In a surprising move, Cardiff Council has refused to give in to demands from humanists to remove its logo from adverts across the city encouraging people to go to church this Easter. 

Plea to meet MPs ahead of assisted suicide vote
Plea to meet MPs ahead of assisted suicide vote

If just 23 MPs change their mind, the Bill will fall.