Irish schoolteacher Enoch Burke will spend Christmas behind bars in Mountjoy Prison unless he agrees to ‘purge his contempt of court’.
Burke has been incarcerated since late November for allegedly breaching an injunction prohibiting him from entering a school’s grounds.
The long-running dispute began in 2022 when the then-principal asked staff to address a student by a new name and preferred pronouns. Burke, citing his Christian beliefs, refused to comply and was later suspended. He has consistently argued that this instruction — which he believed contradicted his faith — was the catalyst for all subsequent disciplinary action. The school’s board, however, secured court orders preventing him from appearing on the campus, orders which judges say he repeatedly breached by returning to the grounds.
Appearing in the High Court this week, Burke again represented himself. Justice Brian Cregan pressed Burke to give an undertaking not to trespass on school property — a gesture that would immediately secure his release — but Burke insisted he was not in contempt and maintained that he was being punished for his beliefs rather than his actions. “I have a clear conscience,” Burke told the court, reaffirming that he respected Irish law but could not violate his religious principles.
The court vacated a December review date and instead set a new hearing for March 3, ruling that Burke would be “treated like every other person” held in contempt.
Burke countered that he never sought special treatment, only honesty from the court, and accused the proceedings of disregarding constitutional protections for religious freedom. Online, statements from an account associated with him sharply criticised the Irish justice system, describing his imprisonment as a “dark and shameful day” which saw an educator targeted for refusing to “endorse transgenderism.”
BREAKING: Judge jails Enoch Burke for Christmas with effective life sentence
This is a dark and shameful day in Ireland. Enoch Burke is an exemplary teacher and a man of integrity. His only “crime” is that he refuses to endorse transgenderism and bow to a satanic ideology.… pic.twitter.com/x3m260lODa
— Enoch Burke (@EnochBurke) December 3, 2025
OUTRAGEOUS!
The Irish government are TRAITORS. Meanwhile, they let this happen … UK grooming gangs: 385 hidden convictions reveal decades of child rape and state failure
God bless you Saint Enoch. You’re awesome.
Only thing that’s contemptuous here is Ireland’s globalist government and its loathsome functionaries.No different, to what we are seeing here, in New Zealand. Of course, the turn coats, all have the same international masters. The local people, have long since, been discarded.
Charlie Kirk connected the dots for you. E.S.T.
A bit like Tina Peters in the US
There are lots of innocent people in jails around the world
Victims of circumstance
And other political stitch ups
A mere distraction from the bigger issue happening right under your nose. Pun intended. Now start rubbing your hands together.