In the autumn of 2022, Irish teacher Enoch Burke refused to address a transgender pupil by his newly chosen name and pronouns.
After some back and forth, he ended up being jailed indefinitely. Now he has been arrested again for the third time.
Burke worked as a teacher at Wilson’s Hospital School, a Church of Ireland secondary school. He was arrested for contempt of court in a case that began when Burke refused to call a boy a girl, even though the boy identified as a girl.
When he refused to comply with the school’s requirement to use his chosen name and pronouns, he was expelled from school. Burke was arrested because he continued to attend school despite the expulsion.
“My religious beliefs are not a misdemeanour,” Burke told the court.
It’s extraordinary that this is happening in Ireland. As recently as 1 January 2019, abortion was allowed in Ireland, following a referendum in May 2018.
Now you can lose your job and risk imprisonment if you don’t allow yourself to be forced to call a girl a boy.
Now Burke has been sent back to Mountjoy Prison for his third prison sentence. The reason is that he has once again turned up at the Wilson’s Hospital School after school has started.
What makes the case a little piquant is that Judge O’Donnell is said to have earned almost €400,000 between 2016 and 2018 representing TUSLA as a lawyer.
TUSLA is the Irish state’s “child protection agency”, an organisation steeped in LGBT ideology, which recently encouraged staff to learn about transvestites and drag performers, and which makes acceptance of LGBT and transgender ideology a condition of accepting children into foster care.
BREAKING: Teacher Enoch Burke arrested at Wilson’s Hospital School after refusing to endorse and affirm transgender ideology.
Judge Barry O’Donnell, who made almost €400,000 from 2016-2018 representing TUSLA as a barrister, ordered his arrest.
TUSLA is the Irish State ‘Child… pic.twitter.com/Ni8xLSRS7a
– Enoch Burke (@EnochBurke) September 2, 2024
You might wonder why Burke doesn’t just stay away from the school he’s been expelled from. But Burke seems willing to become a kind of martyr for all opponents of the LGBTQ pressure that also affects schools and kindergartens.
Burke himself says that he has a right to be at school, and that he has an obligation to his students.
So it’s not allowed to have a different opinion to what the LGBTQ ideologues demand. You have to follow their linguistic and rather tyrannical rules, otherwise you will be penalised.
Burke enjoys massive support among ordinary Irish people, in a country where Catholicism is strongest. But although Burke is affiliated with the Anglican Church of Ireland, the truly religious are largely united on this issue, even if the school and the leadership of the church take a different view.
As in Norway, it’s the LGBTQ ideologues who have an impact on the so-called elites. It’s all about “love” and “inclusion”.
The treatment of Enoch Burke is a good example of what this kind of inclusion means in practice.