AAP FACTCHECK – A school teacher was arrested for not endorsing “transgender ideology” and refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns, social media posts claim.
This is misleading. While Irish teacher Enoch Burke was suspended and later dismissed for confronting his school’s principal over a directive relating to a transgender child, he was arrested for not complying with a court injunction to stay away from the school.
In September he was jailed for a third time for violating court orders.
Some social media posts have claimed the teacher was “arrested for not calling a boy a ‘girl’” and for “not endorsing transgenderism“, with many posts sharing a clip showing Burke being arrested by police.
In June 2022, the secondary school teacher and evangelical Christian was suspended from Wilson’s Hospital School, in Ireland’s Westmeath county, for alleged misconduct.
This came after he publicly confronted the then-principal and objected to a directive to call a student by they/them pronouns.
A May 2023 High Court judgment stated the decision of the board to suspend Burke followed him interrupting a religious service and asserting that the principal had made a “demand” that staff accept “transgenderism”.
Burke said this was against his beliefs and the teaching of all Christian churches.
The judgment, describing Burke as “agitated”, said he also interrupted the school principal while she was socialising with guests on two occasions after the service.
He was put on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of a disciplinary process, but continued showing up to the school, leading to the school asking the High Court for an injunction order to prevent him from attending.
The court granted a temporary injunction, however this didn’t stop Burke and he was jailed in September 2022 for breaching the order.
He spent three months in a Dublin jail before being released in December 2022.
He was then formally dismissed from his job in January 2023, and faced a fine of 700 euros (A$1,150) per day if he returned to the school.
He reappeared as the new term began, and went on to amass more than 140,000 euros (A$230,700) in fines for breaching court orders and was jailed for a second time in September 2023 after he refused to promise the court that he would stay away from the school.
He was released during school holidays in June 2024, but went to the school again in August when the term commenced.
Wilson’s Hospital School applied for an order to jail Burke on August 28 for failing to comply with a permanent injunction to not trespass on the school grounds.
On September 2, a judge jailed Burke for the third time.
The Courts Service of Ireland confirmed to AAP FactCheck that Burke was committed to prison for breaching an order that he stay away from the school.
Dr Charles O’Mahony, a law lecturer at the University of Galway, also told AAP FactCheck the claim is not true.
“[Burke] was imprisoned for refusing to comply with orders of the Irish High Court,” Dr O’Mahony said.
He said there’s no provision in Irish law to arrest a person for not endorsing “transgender ideology” or for “not calling a boy a girl”.
He added that the Irish government is currently developing new hate speech and hate crime laws, but said the current draft if enacted would still not provide for the arrest of a person for the reasons claimed.
The Verdict
Misleading – The claim is accurate in parts but information has also been presented incorrectly, out of context or omitted.
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