A Christian teacher in Ireland has been fired after he refused to use students’ preferred pronouns.
Enoch Burke was previously placed on administrative leave in 2022 after he refused to address a student as “they.” He was then banned from Wilson’s Hospital School in Co. Westmeath, Ireland, and spent three months in prison after he continued to appear on campus in 2023.
At the beginning of the 2024 academic year, Burke was arrested again.
In a video showing his arrest, Burke can be heard saying, “I have a right to work here, I have a right to be here.”
A judge found Burke to be in violation of an existing court order, and sent him to Mountjoy Prison.
Burke told the court following the incident, “You will answer to God for imprisoning me for my religious beliefs,” the Irish Independent reported.
The teacher has spent 400 days in prison across his three arrests.
Josiah Burke, the teacher’s brother, told Newsweek, “Judge after judge has refused to vindicate and uphold his constitutional right to freedom of religion and expression.”
“Enoch Burke’s ongoing imprisonment is the true face of the ‘inclusive’ LGBTQI+ movement: a sincere, upright Christian teacher arrested and imprisoned after simply refusing to endorse and affirm transgenderism, an anti-Christian ideology that entraps vulnerable children and puts them on a fast track to abuse, mutilation, depression and sadly for so many, suicide.”
