Irish teacher released from Dublin Jail!

 

Enoch Burke

Mountjoy prison in Dublin, is famously known as the prison where the British hung and tortured the young IRA lad and medical student, Kevin Barry, who was sentenced to death for an attack on a British Army supply lorry in 1920, that led to the deaths of three British soldiers. It's said that the British offered Barry his life in return for him betraying his comrades, which he refused to do, and therefore, Kevin Barry became another Irish Martyr.

The school teacher and evangelical Christian, Enoch Burke, who has just been released from Mountjoy prison after being confined for 107 days, for contempt of court, is fast becoming another kind of Irish Martyr. Although Burke refused to purge his contempt and also refused to leave prison on principle, he was nevertheless released from jail. He said that do so, would be in breach of his Christian beliefs and his duty to God. He told the Irish Times: "My only crime is that I had a religious belief and I would not sell it."

In September, Burke was sent to jail after he broke a High Court injunction forbidding him to attend the school he was employed at as a school teacher. He'd been suspended by Wilson's Hospital School, in County Westmeath, because he refused to use a transgender students preferred pronouns of "they/them."

On Wednesday, a Judge ordered his release from imprisonment because he felt that Burke was "exploiting his imprisonment for his own ends" and was becoming an household name. Mr Justice Brian O'Moore, said the court "would not enable someone found to be in contempt of court to garner some advantage from that defiance." He said the Irish taxpayer would not be "burdened with paying Mr Burke's salary at the same time as they are paying for his upkeep in Mountjoy."

While Enoch Burke does not accept that he's been lawfully incarcerated, his released from jail, still means that he faces the prospect of further incarceration or the sequestration of his assets, or other penalties, if he persists in ignoring court injunctions.