Enoch Burke has traded one jail for another as fines for his daily night watch at school surpass the €5,000 mark

For almost two weeks, I watched and interacted with Burke to try to better understand him and his decision last August not to comply with a request to address a young trans student by his preferred name and pronoun.

This disagreement, based on Burke’s deeply rooted religious stance against transgenderism, led first to his suspension, then to a lawsuit from Wilson’s Hospital School in Multyfarnham, Co. Westmeath to prevent him from showing up there, and then to a time limit of 108 days in jail for contempt of court if he kept showing up.

Just before Christmas, Mr. Judge Brian O’Moore ruled that Burke was taking advantage of his time in prison and released him with a warning that the only threat to him remaining at liberty was that he would again violate court orders .

He returned to school grounds at the first opportunity, violating a court order, and he’s still going back, despite an arrest and a €700 daily fine imposed on him by the Supreme Court.

In front of the school gate, he started ranting about his right to show up for work. I pointed out to him that the school was in fact no longer his place of work, but this was not acknowledged.

On Wednesday, January 25, he was driven to and from school without comment. But on Thursday, when Judge O’Moore announced the 700-euro daily fine, at the end of the day he began walking from his waiting position in front of the school building to the gate and protesting loudly again. But he didn’t want to answer questions from the media.

Late last week, people started showing up at the school gates, curious to see the man who had become a household name.

“Where is he?” “Is that him?” “Isn’t he frozen?” “How much longer can he last?”

These are the questions everyone wants answered.

Locally, there are mixed feelings about Burke and his lonely quest. Some say he’s insane, that his opposition to a young student wanting to be recognized and accepted on his own terms belongs to the Dark Ages, and that showing up every day unwanted and thus distracting staff and students, especially those, is wrong who are now facing their mock exams.

Others say he was wrongly fired for having his own opinion, and he is right to protest. There is a broader debate about transgenderism at national and international levels and across social, cultural and religious divides. But Burke has brought that debate to a cool, remote hilltop in rural Westmeath.

Media exposure dwindled over the days and last Monday afternoon I was the last reporter to stand at the gate. It would go on like this.

That Monday I learned a little more about Burke. Normally he only gives verbal explanations and doesn’t take questions on board, wallowing in a kind of stream of consciousness through what he wants to say and pulling Bible quotations out of his head.

He is suave, polite and possesses a highly functioning intellect and mental prowess, but everything is said and done on his terms. There is no compromise.

However, he revealed something to me that Monday when he criticized Judge O’Moore’s opinion that he had “exploited his time in prison”.

“I was in a cell for 108 days. I was behind a locked door. I was in a 12 foot by 6 foot cell. I had one to two six-minute phone calls a day and one to two visits a week. How do you take advantage of such a situation?” he asked.

I asked him how he spends his day standing in front of the school.

“It’s a long day and I’m here to work,” he said. It was the only time he seemed to hear at least one question.

That’s when I realized that Burke has gone from one prison to another and both are punishments in different ways.

One was a confined space at Mountjoy for 108 days. Now his prison is cold and open, standing in front of the school where he once taught. He stands there as staff and students come and go, knowing he is not wanted. It is physically, mentally and emotionally debilitating.

Of course, his time in Mountjoy and his attendance at school from 8:50 a.m. to 3:40 p.m. is his own decision. He could end his daily “shift” at any time, but he doesn’t. He has no criminal conviction, but his religious beliefs are just as great a burden in many ways.