September 1, 2025: Sacked schoolteacher Enoch Burke returns to Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath for the new term. RollingNews.ie

There’s a lot of misinformation circulating online about why Enoch Burke keeps being sent to jail, with many people on social media and some media outlets suggesting it’s due to his refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns.

In fact, the misinformation has spread outside the country, with articles from around the world, and podcasts such as Joe Rogan, even reporting on the arrests incorrectly.

The Background

Back in 2022, evangelical teacher Enoch Burke was working at Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath, and after interrupting a church service held to mark the school’s 260th anniversary, they sought an injunction against him.

Allegedly, Burke followed the principal around and loudly questioned her about a request made to all teachers at the school to address a student by their preferred pronouns, ‘they’ and ‘them’.

After the incident, the school initiated disciplinary action against him, and he was placed on paid leave pending the outcome of the process.

However, Burke continued to show up at the school, and hence, they had to request a court order as the board had determined that Burke’s actions were not abiding by the terms of his suspension and were disrupting the school and its students.

Why He Was Jailed

When Burke continued to show up at the school, a request was made to the courts to take further action.

He was jailed for contempt of court in September 2022 after turning up at the school and breaking yet another injunction.

Burke was not arrested for refusing to refer to the student by their preferred pronouns, but was jailed for contempt of court for breaking the injunction.

Since then, he has been in and out of jail, without purging his contempt.

Enoch Burke in August 2023. (RollingNews.ie)

However, he has repeatedly refused to stop showing up at the school, even reportedly entering the building to attend a staff meeting at one point.

Throughout this time, the courts have been clear that Burke can purge his contempt by agreeing to stay away from the school, meaning he doesn’t have to accept transgender students or refer to their preferred pronouns in order to be released from prison. He just has to stay away from the school.

Earlier in November 2025, a judge ruled that Burke be sent to jail for a fourth time, with Mr Justice Brian Cregan saying fines and security measures have not deterred him from trespassing at Wilson’s Hospital School.

Justice Cregan said Mr Burke had ‘not paid a euro’ of fines imposed by courts and said it was ‘clear’ security guards had failed to deter him from ‘breaching court orders and entering school premises’.

He said there was ‘no longer any option left to enforce the order of the court other than to imprison Mr Burke for repeated and flagrant breaches of the court order’.

Burke was not in court for the sentencing and Mr Justice Cregan ordered his immediate committal to prison.

To date, Burke has spent more than 500 days in prison in three ­separate terms since September 2022 – and has been fined more than €225,000.

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Enoch Goes AWOL

In relation to this fourth jail order, when gardaí attempted to arrest Burke and carry out the ruling, he was nowhere to be found.

Gardaí visited his family home in Mayo for a second time on Wednesday ­evening, looking to arrest him. A female family member filmed Enoch’s father, Seán Burke, speaking to four gardaí waiting at the front door of the house.

The previous visit by three gardaí earlier in the day was also filmed, and both videos were posted to Enoch Burke’s X account, with the ­second appearing just before midnight on Wednesday.

While Enoch’s father Sean insisted his son was ‘entitled to his religious belief’ adding that the presence of the gardaí was ‘shameful’, claiming that his son’s ‘constitutional right to profess and practise [his] belief’ has been ‘denied’.

The lead garda, who was holding the court order, replied: ‘We are here under the instructions of the High Court because there is an order of committal… that is why we are here’.

However, the now fugitive reappeared online, sharing a video messagefrom outside the school gates on Friday November 21, where he railed against the judge who has ordered his imprisonment and demanded that Church of Ireland and Catholic leaders stand up to transgender ‘ideology’ as he says he has.

He attacked Catholic leaders for staying silent and for allowing transgender and pride flags to be hung in Catholic schools.

The video is captioned: ‘Enoch Burke speaks today outside Wilson’s Hospital. School High Court Judge Brian Cregan has directed Gardaí to arrest and imprison teacher Enoch Burke in blatant disregard of his Constitutional and God-given rights.

‘Enoch Burke refused to comply with Principal Niamh McShane’s demand that he use the “they” pronoun for a male student. Judge Cregan has described him as an “intruder” and a “potential danger” to students in the school.

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‘Enoch Burke has been betrayed by Ireland’s religious leaders who have kept a treacherous silence while anti-Christian ideology is imposed on every child in the country. As imprisonment looms for Enoch Burke, he asks you to challenge your religious leaders and to stand up for your sons and daughters.’

Many people in the comments highlighted the false allegations made in the post about how he is being arrested for contempt of court and repeatedly breaking the injunction.

At the time of publishing, Burke still hasn’t been arrested.

*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.