Original article (in Serbian) was published on 5/9/2024; Author: Stefan Kosanović
The conspiratorial web portal Nulta tacka manipulatively presented the case of Irish professor Enoch Burke, claiming that he was arrested for “having faith in God” and refusing to “indoctrinate children into LGBTQ ideology”. The real background of this story is far more complex. Burke, in fact, found himself behind bars not because of his religious beliefs, but because of disobeying court orders. Due to the incidents and behaviour caused by the school principal’s request that teachers start using a non-binary pronoun for one student, Burke was suspended. However, he ignored that decision, which resulted in a court ban from approaching the school. The appeal he filed regarding the suspension was rejected, and the court confirmed its legitimacy. After repeatedly ignoring court orders and persistently coming to the school property, he ended up in prison – for the third time in two years.
„In Ireland, teachers who believe in God are being arrested: A teacher who refused to indoctrinate children in LGBTQ has been in prison for more than 400 days”, reveals the title of the web portal Nulta tacka, prone to spreading conspiracy theories.
The title implies that the Irish professor Enoch Burke was imprisoned for “having faith in God” or for refusing to “indoctrinate children”, and in the text he is also called a “devout Christian”.
However, Burke actually ended up in prison for continuing to disobey court orders.
He was initially suspended from Wilsons Hospital School in County Westmeath, Ireland in August 2022, following an incident at the school’s anniversary celebration. Back then, Burke, during a church ceremony, interrupted the event demanding that the principal reverse the decision ordering teachers to use the pronouns of transgender students’ choice.
As reported by TheJournal, Burke constantly insisted on talking to the director, following her and exerting pressure, which resulted in the escalation of the situation.
Also controversial was his refusal to use the gender-neutral pronoun “they” for a student who was in the process of changing gender, which he had to respect in accordance with school rules.
Despite the suspension, he continued to come to work, which is why the court issued a restraining order to prevent him from doing so. Even after the ban, Burke did not give up and continued to come to school.
Burke appealed to the court against the suspension, but the court upheld its validity.
The court then repeatedly called on him to comply with the school restraining order, and due to persistent violation of court orders, Burke ended up in prison – not because of his religious beliefs.
He ended up in prison for the first time in September 2022. Although he was released three months later, he was imprisoned again in September 2023 for violating another court order. In September 2024, AP reported that Burke was arrested for the third time for the same offence.
In January 2023, Burke was officially fired for intimidating and harassing a colleague, as well as for disclosing confidential information about a child who was in the process of transitioning.
According to the BBC, Burke believes that in his ruling, the judge completely disregarded his constitutional rights to freedom of conscience, as well as to the free confession and practice of religion, when he refused to comply with the school’s instruction to address a student by a different name and use the pronoun “they”.
Enoch Burke comes from a family with a long history of legal disputes related to religious discrimination and challenging LGBT+ rights in Ireland. This family clashed with the Irish institutions on several occasions. His brother and sister were also involved in legal cases, and during one case they were banned for life from university societies at the National University of Ireland, Galway.
University representatives then stated that the ban was implemented because the Burkes distributed flyers using the university’s logo, which is against the rules of conduct, and used university funds to pay for those flyers, thereby misrepresenting the university. They also claimed that the Burkes had not shown a willingness to cooperate with the investigative committee and that they had provided misleading information. The Burkes described that as religious discrimination and appealed to the court. However, they lost that case.
On his official X account, Enoch Burke continues to present himself as a professor at the institution from which he was dismissed. He regularly publishes videos on his account, often with family members, in which he openly criticizes the rights of the LGBT+ community.
