The release from prison of the Irish professor Enoch Burke —after more than a year and a half behind bars for disobeying court orders linked to his former school— has not closed the case, but rather reactivated it. His brother, who has disseminated a public message on social networks, maintains that the release from prison is “a total mockery of justice” because, according to the complaint, the judge who authorized his release knows that Burke will return to show up at the school Wilson’s Hospital School and thus exposes himself to an immediate return to jail. Meanwhile, Burke has gone today to the doors of the center in Westmeath, where private security prevented his entry, according to RTÉ.
“They release him, but to push him back to prison”
In a message posted on X, Burke’s brother presents the release not as an act of clemency or a real change in the case, but as a calculated move to weaken Burke in the public eye.
As he writes, his brother spent more than 560 days in a cell “for refusing to bow to transgender ideology” and, although he has been freed today, this would be nothing more than a maneuver: the judge Brian Cregan “knows perfectly well” that Burke will return to his workplace and, immediately afterward, “faces an immediate return to prison”.
The text insists that the release is not intended to ensure a fair process, but rather to harm him. The brother accuses the judge of a “staged performance,” recalling that in December he had threatened to keep him imprisoned “indefinitely” and that the current situation would aim to “damage the prestige” of Burke in society.
The parallel front: the appeal against the disciplinary panel
The brother’s message does not limit itself to the prison aspect. It also denounces that the judge Cregan would be advising the Disciplinary Appeals Panel (DAP) on how to respond to the legal challenge filed by Burke. And it describes the December appeal hearing as a “shameful farce,” accusing it of a total lack of impartiality.
In his writing, he even quotes a member of the panel, Geraldine O’Brien, who would have said —at the beginning of the hearing— that if her director ordered her to call a student by a certain name, she would have to comply even if she disagreed. For the Burke family, that phrase would demonstrate that the panel starts from a criterion of institutional obedience that leaves no room for the teacher’s objection.
What happened today: Burke returns to the school
While that message was being disseminated, Burke went today to the Wilson’s Hospital School, in County Westmeath, and attempted to access the grounds. According to RTÉ, private security blocked his path and some supporters gathered at the entrance. Burke stated that his dismissal and his time in prison are an “insult to the institutions of the State” and reiterated that he had a “duty” to show up at his former job.
RTÉ recalls that Judge Cregan ordered his release from prison citing the “interest in the administration of justice” so that he could prepare his case against the DAP, but conditioned the measure on not entering the school property, warning that if he does so, he could be sent back to prison.
In essence, the Burke case is playing out today on two levels: For his family and supporters, it is about exemplary punishment for resisting policies linked to gender ideology, and the release would be a step designed to “humiliate him” and return him to jail. For the justice system and the school’s administration, the core is the contempt of court orders and the unauthorized entry to the school grounds.
In any case, the episode confirms that the battle —legal, media, and cultural— is far from over.