The Irish teacher Enoch Burke has been ordered by the High Court to pay approximately €210,000 in fines. The ruling follows Burke’s refusal to use a pupil’s ‘preferred pronouns’ and new name at school.
Burke, who teaches at Wilson’s Hospital School in Westmeath, central Ireland, has consistently maintained that he cannot use the new pronouns for reasons of religious conviction and conscience. He argues that it would be contrary to his Christian beliefs and personal conscience to participate in affirming a pupil’s subjective gender identity when doing so conflicts with biological reality.
Do teachers have freedom of conscience in ideologically contentious matters?
Burke was suspended from his position in 2022 after refusing to use pupils’ preferred pronouns. The school and the authorities considered this to constitute discrimination and a breach of the school’s equality policy. Burke has refused to accept the suspension and has repeatedly returned to the school, resulting in several imprisonments for contempt of court. In total, he has spent more than 700 days in prison.
For his repeated breaches of the court’s orders, he has now been subjected to substantial fines. Burke describes the ruling as an attack on both freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
The case is Ireland’s most divisive legal dispute, and the conflict is far from over. Enoch Burke has said that he is willing to remain in prison for the rest of his life rather than yield.
BREAKING: My brother teacher @EnochBurke has been ordered to pay almost €210,000 in fines by a High Court Judge.
His crime: refusing to accept you can be suspended from your job for not calling a child “they”.
A shameful day for Ireland. https://t.co/OXg1GJEdoO pic.twitter.com/YTVWoqkF6M
— Josiah Burke (@realJosiahBurke) July 16, 2026