DUBLIN, Ireland: Enoch Burke, a school teacher, was returned to jail this week after the High Court ordered his detention for contempt.

The judge had ruled on November 18th that Burke should be jailed again for "repeated and flagrant" breaches of court orders instructing him not to attend Wilson's Hospital School in Co Westmeath, where he previously taught.

Burke and his family, Evangelical Christians from Co Mayo, have been involved in a long-running legal dispute with the school. The conflict began in 2022 after the then-principal asked that a student be addressed by a new name and pronoun.

Justice Brian Cregan stressed that the case before him was not about Burke's opinions on transgender issues, but about his ongoing defiance of orders prohibiting him from trespassing on school grounds.

The judge noted that Burke has not paid any of the substantial fines issued by the courts and that security guards at the school had failed to stop him from returning. Because of this, he said, imprisonment was the only remaining way to enforce the court's authority. Burke has previously said he has already spent around 500 days in prison over the dispute.

Justice Cregan said Burke "has the keys to his own prison," meaning he can be released at any time if he agrees to comply with the court's orders. He also criticized Burke and his family, saying they had carried out "the most deliberate, sustained and concerted attack" on Ireland's civil courts and the rule of law in recent years. He asked the Attorney General to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Burke, his mother, Martina, his brother, Isaac, and his sister, Ammi.

Despite the court orders, a video was posted to Burke's X account on November 21 showing him outside Wilson's Hospital School once again. In a statement, An Garda Síochána confirmed that it had "executed a High Court order in Mullingar, Co Westmeath this afternoon, Tuesday, 25th November 2025."