Enoch Burke has been committed to Mountjoy Prison for contempt of court after telling a judge he would not abide by a court order restraining him from attending for work while suspended, claiming that to do so would violate his religious beliefs.
The schoolteacher opposed an application from Wilson’s Hospital School for his imprisonment, saying: “I love my school. I am here today because I would not call a boy a girl.”
He told Mr Justice Michael Quinn: “It is not something I will do. It is in violation of my conscience.”
The evangelical Christian was suspended on full pay on August 24 pending the outcome of a disciplinary process after clashing with the school’s principal and board of management over a request that teachers address a transgender student by a new name and use the pronoun “they” instead of “he”.
However, he continued to turn up for work, prompting the Church of Ireland diocesan boarding school to seek and secure an interlocutory injunction from Ms Justice Siobhan Stack last Wednesday restraining him from coming to its premises in Multyfarmham, Co Westmeath until September 7.
Despite this order, he continued to come to the school each morning. This led to a further application from the board of management, and Ms Justice Miriam O’Regan ordered on Friday that Mr Burke be arrested and brought before the court today.
The teacher said transgenderism was against his religious beliefs and contrary to the teaching of all the major church on the island of Ireland.
“Were I to obey the order of the board of management and the order of the court, I would have to accept that sticking by my belief in male and female is wrong,” he said.
“It is not something I will do. It is in violation of my conscience.
“Were I to go into the school and bow to something I know to be manifestly wrong, it would be a shame and a disgrace on my part.”