An Irish teacher turned evangelical firebrand is back in the news again after a court ordered last week that $43,200 be removed from his bank account to pay for court fines.

Enoch Burke has spent over six months in jail and lost tens of thousands of dollars, which he claims is because of his faith. However, online court records show the fines imposed on Burke appear to be not for his religious beliefs but for repeatedly defying court orders.

According to news reports, Enoch Burke is a teacher at a Westmeath secondary school in County Mayo who, in June 2022, refused to use the pronoun ‘they,’ which is preferred by a student in the process of transitioning to a different gender. He confronted a school administrator in public at a school event and was suspended on paid leave as a result.

After he was suspended, he continued to turn up to teach his classes despite the school’s repeated requests that he stay away from the premises while the disciplinary process was ongoing. The school obtained a High Court injunction to stop the continued disruption, but Burke allegedly ignored the order.

As a result, he was jailed in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin for contempt of court in September 2022 and released three months later. A further breach of a court order led to a second stint in jail from September 2023, and he was released in June 2024 once the school holidays were underway.

The court order included forcibly removing over $43,200 from Burke’s bank account to help pay for his fines. Burke owes over $85,500 in unpaid court fines and has allegedly continually refused to cooperate with the authorities. The court order aims to reclaim some of that debt.

Mr. Burke has loudly claimed in news interviews and on social platforms that he was wrongfully imprisoned because he objected to “transgenderism” when the court says his incarceration was for breaching a court order and therefore breaking the law.

Burke argues that the court’s decision has disregarded his freedom of conscience and the free practice of religion and that refusing to comply with the school’s direction to call a student by a different name and pronoun is an expression of his constitutional rights. He states that the proceedings against him have resulted in him losing two years of his life.

Several members of Burke’s family have staged protests both inside and outside Irish courtrooms and even turned up at a St. Patrick’s Day event in Washington D.C. attended by the Irish Prime Minister, claiming Burke is being targeted for his religious beliefs.

His detractors argue that refusing to call a person by their chosen pronoun, disobeying and confronting one’s employer, and repeatedly breaching a court order have nothing to do with freedom of religion. This raft of questionable behaviors can be understood as another expression of a ‘culture war.’ It’s about resisting ‘the woke agenda,’ which is a reflection of internal arguments within the Church.

Justice Mark Sanfey stated in his ruling that the injunction remains in place, and if any further breaches of the order occur, he would have “no hesitation” in entertaining the school’s fresh application to have him sent back to prison.