HE CALLED A BOY A BOY: JAILED

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Enoch Burke - Oirish as Paddy's pig 

"I will never leave Mountjoy Prison if in leaving that prison I must violate my well-informed conscience, and my religious beliefs and deny my God.” Evidently the Christian spirit isn't dead yet, in Ireland, even if Catholicism is. 

Enoch Burke, a Christian and a teacher at a secondary school in Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath – a Church of Ireland school – is languishing in Mountjoy Prison for contempt of court resulting from his refusal to call “a boy a girl” in the classroom.

New Zealand's Catholic and Christian teachers, gird your loins! If this can happen in Ireland - a Catholic country until very recently - how much more likely is it in a pagan nation like ours? 

Burke reiterated claims that transgenderism was against the teachings of every major church on the island of Ireland. He claimed the court had stripped him of his liberty and his dignity, but it could not deprive him of his integrity and his religious convictions.

RTE News reported that Burke was sentenced to Mountjoy Prison after breaking an injunction issued against him and will remain in prison for an unspecified period of time.

Burke is at the center of a disciplinary process after he refused to address a male student – reportedly in the process of “transitioning” – as a girl, and also refused to use the pronoun “they.”

Burke reportedly refused to comply with the school principal’s May 9 order to use the new name and pronoun and was consequently placed on paid, administrative leave August 22 while the school board held a disciplinary process.

Upon Burke’s continued attendance at the school, he was then handed an interim order on August 30, wrote the Irish Times, to prevent him from entering the school.

Burke, who teaches German, history and politics, had told the court that he refused “to call a boy a girl” as it was “manifestly wrong” and against his conscience. He continued to attend the school despite the injunction.

The school board was determined to remove Burke from the school and consequently sought the intervention of law enforcement after his rejection of the August 30 order, claiming that he could be disruptive to the students.

Wilson's Hospital School. Burke loves his school and its motto Res Non Verba ('Actions not Words')

The court permitted this in a hearing Friday. Burke was then arrested for contempt of court on Monday while sitting in an empty classroom in the school.

“My religious beliefs are not misconduct. They are not gross misconduct,” he told the court. “They never will be. They are dear to me. I will never deny them and never betray them, and I will never bow to an order that would require me to do so. It is just not possible for me to do that.”

He added that upholding the biological reality of male and female could not lead to a charge of gross misconduct, and such a charge was the only thing which could lead to a suspension.

“Transgenderism is against my Christian belief. It is contrary to the scriptures, contrary to the ethos of the Church of Ireland and of my school,” the teacher added. “I love my school, with its motto Res Non Verba, actions not words, but I am here today because I said I would not call a boy a girl.”

It is insanity that I will be led from this courtroom to a place of incarceration, but I will not give up my Christian beliefs."

 

He was sentenced to serve an unspecified jail term, to last until he purges his contempt or until further order of the court.

Many have expressed outrage at Burke’s arrest, with social media users suggesting his refusal to use transgender pronouns was the underlying cause of the arrest.

However, Judge Michael Quinn stated that he was sentencing Burke to prison based only on his contempt of court, not on his beliefs. But, with Burke sentenced to prison until he “purges his contempt” or the court orders otherwise, it is unclear when he might be released.

Mountjoy Prison - how Oirish is its name!

‘It seems to me that I can be a Christian in Mountjoy Prison or be a pagan and acceptor of transgenderism outside of it. I know where I belong.

‘My faith has led me to that place and will keep me there.’

 St Gerard, patron of the unjustly accused, pray for Enoch Burke