Irish Teacher Jailed For Falling Foul of Ireland’s New Religion – Refuses to Pretend a Boy is a Girl
Editor writes…
To read more about this scandal, check out The trans inquisition comes to Ireland
So, the Irish ditched the Catholic Church, seeking to be free of its “authoritarianism”. How’s that going? And what about the impressive integrity of the teacher, Enoch Burke, who teaches in a Church of Ireland school. Calling all Catholic teachers who are going along (or WILL go along) with the evil attack on our very humanity, known as transgenderism…
Your thoughts…
Comments (28)
Well, technically he was jailed for contempt of the court, and for going to school even if he had been suspended.
While it is shameful that he was suspended in the first place, he cannot ignore a judge’s orders like it isn’t there.
Emanuele,
Yes, that is my understanding too. Apparently Mr Burke had been ordered by the Court to stay away from the school while the disciplinary process was underway, but instead he would continue to turn up and sit in an empty class saying he was there to work.
You are right that it is shameful that he was suspended in the first place.
He would have been better off staying away during the process and arguing that no authority can compel him to affirm lies, nor force him to use nonsense words instead of the rules of the English language (they wanted him to call the boy “they” instead of “him”).
No doubt the court leapt on this opportunity to punish him, especially if it meant the disciplinary process had to be abandoned (given he would likely have won that).
He is the author of his own downfall here.
Gabriel Syme,
I read your comment with my jaw somewhere on the floor. As I said to Emanuele, it beggars belief to read these comments from Catholics. The man speaking in the video said right away that people would latch onto the “technicality” of him being charged with contempt of court. That’s a lie, even if “technically” true or not. I am so fizzing right now that I can’t think of an analogy but there’ll be plenty, no doubt.
No, the teacher is not at all “the author of his own downfall here” – he is the victim of real evil, done in the name of the state, with the help of the Irish Catholic clergy and hierarchy who refuse to speak out about anything immoral. It looks like there’s not likely to be much support from the laity either, judging by the comments on this thread so far.
If he had stayed away during the process – which people like you claim was the “prudential” thing to do – the process would have seen him sacked. That would not have made the headlines the way his jailing has done. Just think about the other examples in the Spiked article, frankly I hadn’t heard of any of them before. So, my feeling is that he was making correct use of the virtue of prudence to bring this evil into the light. I applaud him for it.
The only thing in your comment that I agree with, is that it is shameful that he was suspended in the first place. I’m sorry to be so blunt but I am sick of Catholics whose thinking is no different from atheists, TBH. What about our confirmation duty to defend faith and morals, to expose evil? Everybody wants to keep hidden when controversial issues arise. It is not Christian.
Gabriel Syme,
I was once in that teacher’s situation. Different issue, but a matter of conscience just the same. My colleagues took the same attitude. I can just hear them… She is the author of her own downfall. She shouldn’t have insisted on orthodox teaching in RE lessons, and really, she is morally to blame for any pregnancies among the students, with her bleating on about “no sex outside marriage” and (shock horror) no condoms. How DID she get that job? My friends were urging me to be “prudent”, just keep quiet, do the St Thomas More bit… Except that St Thomas More didn’t have to produce worksheets and lesson plans contradicting the teaching of the Church.
In truth, I can’t claim the courage of Enoch Burke, because – in the end – I was never given the chance to refuse to deny the Faith. After many “prudential” strategies which failed, I just quietly became “history”. I’ll say no more than that, for now, won’t spell it out just yet.
Afterwards, of course, the
cowardscolleagues who followed blithely in the steps of their patron saint (Pontius Pilate) were keen to get in touch, meet for coffee, bemoan the injustice of it all. Read on for my response to their invitations…Unprintable.
Lily,
I am afraid you are plain wrong in this instance.
Contempt of Court is not a “technicality” – it is an offence in its own right and actually a very serious matter, as reflected by the fact that it carries a prison sentence.
You do not know what the outcome of the disciplinary process would have been, any more than I do. However, as stated, I believe he would have won his case for the reasons I stated before. Regardless if he had won or lost the disciplinary hearing, he would not be in jail as a result.
Being asked to stay at home during a disciplinary process is a wholly standard requirement, regardless of the work environment and the specific matter in hand. It is done to prevent individual(s) attempting to influence those conducting the enquiry (just as, for example, the accused in a criminal matter are not allowed access to the jury).
He would not comply with this requirement, hence why the Court – a legitimate authority – became involved, because it has the authority to compel him to stay away, where the school board did not.
Yet still he was too pig-headed and short-sighted to abide by this basic requirement of the disciplinary process, which directly led to his imprisonment for contempt of Court.
Before He was crucified, Jesus Christ humbled himself and engaged with the legitimate secular authorities – His discussions with Pilate etc. But not Enoch Burke, no, he knows better and can just ignore Court orders willy-nilly.
These are the plain facts. The circumstances of Burke’s imprisonment – that he would not obey a legitimate authority – are completely distinct from the issue in the school.
By repeating the falsehood that he was jailed for not using pronouns, both he and you are directly aiding the transgender lobby by giving the impression that it is a serious offence, punishable by imprisonment, not to use pronouns.
This is entirely false and a dangerous, self-defeating message to promote.
I admire the man’s courage in refusing to indulge in LGBT nonsense, but I despair at his stupidity for essentially railroading himself into prison.
What an own goal and a major gift on a silver platter to the trans lobby, who must rub their hands with glee to see their opponents imprison themselves for no good reason. Not only that, people are now wrongly thinking they can be jailed for not obeying trans lobby demands.
Had he allowed the disciplinary process to run to completion, he would have either won and been vindicated (as I believe) or would have lost and been seen as someone who had suffered a great injustice.
Both outcomes would have been “one in the eye” for the trans lobby, especially the latter, as it would no doubt have generated much public sympathy and anger on his behalf.
Editor,
At no point was Burke asked to deny his faith. He was ordered by a legitimate authority to stay at home, until a workplace disciplinary procedure had been completed.
He refused to obey the Court and so was sent to prison. That is the long and short of it.
My (longer) reply to Lily explains my stance in detail, but ultimately his imprisonment is not related to the matter in school (which is not a criminal offence, for one thing).
If people spread the falsehood that he was sent to jail for not using pronouns, they are directly aiding the trans lobby in my opinion.
Gabriel Syme,
“Contempt of Court is not a “technicality” – it is an offence in its own right and actually a very serious matter, as reflected by the fact that it carries a prison sentence.”
You are correct, of course, but I’ve been trying to find data on how many people are actually sent to prison for contempt of court and I can only find occasional newspaper reports about people being fined, not imprisoned. In one report, it was about jurors telling lies to get out of jury duty and even setting up a website to help people do that, LOL! A £1,000 fine was given to a juror for that, but nobody was sent to jail.
I also found out that in Ireland contempt of court is not actually a statutory law. It’s just common practice. So, there was probably no need for the judge to send the man to jail at all.
They can say all they like that it’s not about transgenderism, but can you imagine this happening to a gay man who refused to define a trans woman as a “woman” after a judgement against him. That’s the first comparison that comes to my mind and it maybe doesn’t work, but the point is, there was absolutely no need to send Mr Burke to jail. The state is sending a clear message, of the woke kind, IMHO, since, as you say, it isn’t against the law, yet at least, to refuse to use preferred pronouns. Sending him to prison for contempt was all they could do.
Gabriel Syme,
You make a maddeningly good point about Our Lord before Pilate – accepting the authority of the State. Except, it’s not quite as straightforward as it seems at first glance. Still a good point, and I’m livid I didn’t think of it first. Remember, although Our Lord allowed Himself to be arrested and put on trial, He did not co-operate with the court. When Pilate asked Him if He were King of the Jews, Our Lord replied that it was he, Pilate who said that (He, Our Lord, was not going to confirm or deny – pleading the 5th amendment as RCA Victor would say 😀 ) Then, Our Lord kept silent during Pilate’s questioning only responding to admonish him when he asked if Jesus did not realise that he, Pilate, had the power to release Him or have Him crucified. THEN Christ put him in his place by reminding him that he would have no power over him at all (or should that be “at all, at all”) 😀 but for the fact that it had been given him from above. So, by today’s standards, Our Lord would have been charged with contempt of court, no doubt about it. Still, you made a great point in that Our Lord did, essentially, submit to the secular court. It’s annoying but I’ll just have to
sharpen my fangsup my game 😀I’ve now read so many comments that I can’t remember who said what and when, and because of the reply buttons being all over the place I’m not even going to try to answer all of your points, since it’s almost the midnight hour and I have a similar problem to Cinderella in that my carriage won’t turn into a pumpkin, but my good looks will disappear if I don’t get my beauty sleep 😀 In any case, I’m not too keen on remembering your other points, since they just might be as good as the one that threw me here 😀
I’m not sure if you’ll agree with me but I think it’s patently obvious that if Enoch Burke were a woke warrior, he wouldn’t be sitting in prison tonight. The general feeling online (although I’ve not had time to do a detailed study, just a skim, so to speak) is that the contempt charge is an excuse – and I tend to agree with that.
I think you mentioned that he may have picked the wrong battle and I think it’s safe to say that he may not be one of the three wise men, but neither are many other culprits who have been guilty of showing contempt for courts but never been fined or imprisoned as a result. The prisons are overflowing as it is, with stabbers and robbers, so if everyone who is guilty of contempt of court were incarcerated, there would be a national emergency and the last thing Ireland needs right now is a national emergency.
I mean, is this not emergency enough… ? 😀
Gabriel Syme,
I am not plain wrong. I’m afraid you are wrong to say that “Jesus Christ humbled himself and engaged with the legitimate secular authorities – His discussions with Pilate etc. But not Enoch Burke, no, he knows better and can just ignore Court orders willy-nilly.”
As editor has already said, Jesus did not “engage” with the secular authorities – I don’t think they were legitimate anyway, since they were a Roman conquering army ruling at the time of Christ. He was submissive on that occasion, it is true, but He was not submissive when the Temple (His Father’s House) was being abused by the money changers, because he showed His anger and threw them out, with some harsh words. So, there are times when anger is justified when dealing with religious issues. I take that to include moral issues. Jesus was tolerant of the court but not “engaging” with it, and, again as editor said, His silence during questioning and blunt reaction to Pilate when he said he had power over Jesus, would these days be considered contempt. I don’t think the comparison with Jesus’ trial before Pilate fits this case too well, because the disciplinary school issue gets in the way. The article at Spiked (posted in the introduction) is very good at tracing the timeline and shows how it is the transgender issue that is at the core of this case. Getting the teacher on contempt is a diversion, and as we can see from this thread, it worked! I find it interesting that it doesn’t seem to have worked so well on MSN blogs – on the ones I’ve seen, there is a majority of people who have seen through this and realise that the real issue is that dissent from woke ideology is not permitted. You might even end up in jail!
As for your comment about Enoch Burke “knows better and can just ignore court orders etc” – you seem to continue to hold the courts in high esteem where I have a lot less respect for them now, after the two years of lockdown where only one retired Judge (Lord Sumption) and one barrister (Francis Hoar) spoke out against the tyrannical state. If others spoke out, I must have missed that but I’m definitely not wrong about the fact that there were cases brought by groups like the Simon Dolan group and none of those cases were supported by the courts. Surveys are showing how few members of the public still trust the medical and legal professions as a result of the past two years, and I’m one of those, TBH.
Emanuele,
If you’d watched the video, the narrator said right off that the teacher’s critics would latch on to that “technicality”, missing the whole point that he should never have been suspended in the first place, let alone arrested and charged with the crime of refusing to pretend that a boy is a girl. It beggars belief to hear Catholics defending that on a “technicality”.
Emanuele,
Yes, he can ignore a judge’s order – if only more people had his courage. It’s so tragic that Catholics can’t tell the difference between true and false obedience. Father Gruner wrote a great article about that, which I will try to find and post later. We don’t owe anyone unquestioning obedience. That’s craven.
Emanuele,
…he cannot ignore a judge’s orders like it isn’t there.
Would you say the same about the Canadian Protestant minister who refused to obey the Government’s order to close churches during lockdown? Judge after judge put HIM in prison, but he refused, point blank, to put man-made laws before God’s laws. The State had no authority to ban the worship of God during lockdown or at any other time, and no judge has the right to unjustly imprison Pastor Artur Pawlowski for putting God’s law above secular laws which contradict God’s commandment to worship Him and keep holy the Sabbath Day. Presumably, though, you disagree. Pastor Pawlowski should not have ignored the judge, should have obeyed the judge – and ignored, instead, God’s law. Really?
In the same way, no man-made law or human judge can trump God’s law on human biology. Goodness, even our horrendous pope identified transgender ideology as “an attack on our very humanity”. It’s one of the few things he’s ever said that is correct, which is why I remember it verbatim.
I sometimes despair of Catholics who are (to all appearances) so full of human respect that they would do almost anything rather than stand out from the crowd; obeying bad laws, bad priests, you name it, rather than stand up for the truth – every time.
In almost every unjust experience in my own life (and there have been a few), I’ve been struck by the weakness of Catholics, not least those pretending to be my friends. But then betrayal, as the saying goes, never comes from enemies. Weak characters, weak faith, poor judgment, self-absorbed. I am reminded of the words of Pope Saint Pius X, in his address at the Beatification of St Joan of Arc…
“Difficulties come from those who create and exaggerate them, from those who trust in themselves without the help of Heaven, from those who give in vilely, fearful of the mocking and derision of the world. From this it must be concluded, that in our days more than ever, the greatest strength of evil men is the cowardice and weakness of those who are good, and all the backbone of the kingdom of Satan lies in the weakness of Christians.
Amen!
Editor,
Would you say the same about the Canadian Protestant minister who refused to obey the Government’s order to close churches during lockdown? Judge after judge put HIM in prison, but he refused, point blank, to put man-made laws before God’s laws.
That is a different matter.
A secular Court doesn’t have the authority to ban the worship of God.
But a secular Court does have the authority to compel someone to stay at home until a workplace disciplinary procedure has been completed.
Never before has the phrase “pick your battles” been more appropriate, than in the case of Enoch Burke.
Gabriel Syme,
“Never before has the phrase “pick your battles” been more appropriate, than in the case of Enoch Burke.”
Maybe if the majority of Catholics were not MIA during this culture war, Enoch Burke wouldn’t have to be the fall guy. He’s maybe not picking his battles, as you say, but if nobody else is picking any battles, he probably feels frustrated. FDS says his family have been involved in LGBT fights in the courts before, so I would give him a pass on this – so few Christians (using the term loosely!) are standing up at all, so he is to be praised for trying to do his best. Don’t knock him unless you’ve walked a mile in his shoes, as the old saying goes.
This commentary is interesting – the Irish woman being interviewed doesn’t think he behaved well. I don’t know about that, but I agree that the “technicality” is covering up the real reason for his arrest. Dissent from wokeness is not allowed.
Josephine,
How is it that the media can always find a lapsed Catholic to interview? It can be irritating.
This is at the heart of this case – what will teachers do when it comes to their classrooms? I don’t care about the technicality, either. As Enoch Burke said, teachers can only be suspended for gross misconduct. How’s what he did gross misconduct? Just thinking if one of my children was in the classroom where the teacher was suddenly calling a boy by a girl’s name and this “they/them” pronoun business. Since they’re already being groomed not to tell parents what happens in class, I would never know and my child would be growing up totally wrong-thinking about this. It’s very short-sighted to fall for the “technicality” excuse, IMHO.
That’s a great point, Editor, to notice that the Irish have rejected the so-called “authoritarianism” of the Catholic Church (which, by the way, shamefully surrendered her authority at Vatican II), only to replace it with the authoritarianism of the transgender depravity.
Actually, “authoritarianism” is far too vague and civilized a word. This is pure Satanic tyranny, a foretaste of hell, for those who are paying attention.
RCA Victor,
I used “authoritarianism” (and put it in quotes) because that has been the criticism of the Irish “liberals” (who, again, are no such thing – they’re faithless, and if baptised Catholics, they’re now apostates.)
There can be no doubt that we are living under Satanic tyranny. At best, it’s evil with a smile on its face, at worst, it’s intolerance with a jail cell awaiting.
Burke family as I recall seeing their surnames which ended up in various courts a lot of times. It’s a well known family. I can’t remember how many of them but it involved mother, daughter, son et al at various stages or times over the years except for father I think. I don’t think they are just Catholics, just evangelical Christians but on the far side of the spectrum. Other son who went to LSE and graduated from there. Not sure if it was him or his other brother.
FDS,
That’s interesting. I did a quick search just now but couldn’t find anything. Can you provide some more info?
The teacher is not a Catholic – he is a Christian working in a Church of Ireland school, so presumably he’s a member of the C of I which I am thinking would be equivalent to Presbyterian here (Scotland).
Nicky,
His parents were converted Christians from Catholic. They have a big family about 9 or 10 as I believe. They were heavily involved in anti LBTQ demo and campaign as well which they ended up in courts. That’s how I remembered their names. You are correct re Church of Ireland boarding school. Just to be clear, he’s not a C of I, just evangelical Christians. His brother sued a University in Ireland recently over delay in awarding degrees which cost his chances of getting an employment etc as he won that case. His brothers and sisters were in courts over another thing apart from LBTQ thing. They were eventually barred from a uni in question over some years of anti LBTQ campaigns.
This is the attitude that is prevailing – God’s law is way down the list, after the school’s rules and courts!
https://evoke.ie/2022/09/07/news/enoch-burke-court
Nicky,
That is a very interesting headline, and it exposes what it actually being said on this thread, for what it is. Yes, Enoch Burke is putting his beliefs above the school and court rules and while that may be “technically” wrong, it is understandable because anyone really thinking about what is going on here, knows that it’s not about a disciplinary matter but about stamping out dissent from the transgender ideology.
This is a really thought-provoking discussion so far. You have to wonder when most criminals are allowed out on bail even if they are accused of a serious violent crime, yet someone can be jailed for such a minor breach of the rules. It’s quite startling.
I found this video, it’s two days old but I think it’s interesting, partly because the man speaking to the camera is very calm, yet the passers-by are obviously rattled. I hope it adds something to the discussion.
This is how they’re doing “inclusion” these days, and without people taking a stand on transgenderism, this is how they’ll indoctrinate kids with that as well. So, even if he’s not handling it as well as he maybe could, we should be grateful for people like Enoch Burke who is blazing the trail.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/i-live-with-my-mummy-and-my-other-mummy-peppa-pig-features-same-sex-couple-for-first-time/ar-AA11Ac6k?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=6443b2d178274f419bc23b66aacba7e4
He’s staying for another week In Dublin prison as he rejected the ‘contempt of court’. He said he could stay in prison as long as many years, that’s his quote to date. I found it strange that C of I school who brought him to court. Usually it would be a Catholic school but his family reputation possibly precedes this. Nearly most people would have heard his surname in courts one way or another. Expect it to drag on further for time being.
Here is a similar case in England
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/swindon-teacher-sacked-after-refusing-to-use-pupil-s-preferred-pronouns-without-parental-permission/ar-AA12cHxw?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=258f5d6f69da4ec78063eaa9c0590f1d
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