The High Court has ordered the release of teacher Enoch Burke from prison today — the fifth time he has been freed during a legal saga that has now spanned almost four years and seen him spend close to 700 days behind bars.
Mr Justice Brian Cregan made the order on Wednesday, releasing Mr Burke despite his ongoing contempt of court and despite the teacher offering no assurance that he would stay away from the Westmeath school at the centre of the dispute.
The ruling marks another extraordinary chapter in a case that has tested the limits of Ireland's contempt of court laws, divided public opinion, and drawn international attention to the intersection of religious belief, school policy, and judicial authority.
The Release
Mr Burke was freed today without purging his contempt of court — the legal process by which a contemnor acknowledges wrongdoing and agrees to comply with court orders. He was also released without giving any undertaking to the court that he would not return to the grounds of Wilson's Hospital School in County Westmeath.
This is the fifth time Mr Burke has been ordered released by the High Court. On each of the previous four occasions, he was either re-committed to prison for continuing to breach court orders or returned voluntarily to the school grounds, prompting his re-arrest.
Mr Burke has been in prison since September 2022, when the High Court first committed him for contempt after he repeatedly breached an injunction restraining him from trespassing on school property. He had been dismissed from his teaching position in January 2023 following a disciplinary process that found his conduct amounted to gross misconduct.
The Dispute
The origins of the case lie in a staff meeting at Wilson's Hospital School in May 2022, where the principal asked teachers to address a transgender student by their preferred name and pronouns. Mr Burke, an Evangelical Christian, refused on the grounds that doing so would violate his religious beliefs.
He was placed on paid administrative leave, but continued to attend the school in defiance. The Board of Management sought and obtained a High Court injunction restraining him from the premises. He breached it repeatedly. He was dismissed for gross misconduct. He appealed. He kept returning. And the court kept sending him back to prison.
Throughout, Mr Burke has maintained that he is the victim of an unjust process, that his Christian beliefs have been criminalised, and that the court orders against him are themselves unlawful. He has represented himself in all proceedings, frequently clashing with Mr Justice Cregan and accusing the judiciary of bias.
700 Days in Prison
By today's release, Mr Burke has spent almost 700 days in prison — one of the longest periods of imprisonment for contempt of court in modern Irish legal history. He has been held in both Mountjoy Prison in Dublin and, since March 2026, Castlerea Prison in County Roscommon.
Mr Justice Cregan has repeatedly stated that Mr Burke holds the keys to his own freedom — all he must do is give an undertaking not to trespass on school property. Mr Burke has consistently refused, arguing that to do so would be to accept the legitimacy of a process he believes is corrupt.
What Happens Now
Today's release raises the same question that has followed every previous release: will Mr Burke return to the school?
On each of the four previous occasions he was freed, he either returned to the school grounds immediately or indicated his intention to do so. On 14 January 2026, after his fourth release, he told the court he would be at his workplace the next day — and was. He was re-committed to prison on 19 January.
The High Court order not to trespass on school property remains in force. If Mr Burke breaches it again, the school can seek his re-committal. Whether he does so — and whether the court would again release him — remains to be seen.
His disciplinary appeal against dismissal has concluded, with the Disciplinary Appeal Panel ruling against him. His salary from the Department of Education ceased on 28 May 2026. His teaching registration is the subject of a separate inquiry by the Teaching Council.
For now, Enoch Burke is a free man. But the court orders remain. The school gates remain closed to him. And the case that has consumed almost four years of his life, hundreds of thousands of euros in legal costs, and countless hours of court time shows no sign of a final resolution.