Enoch Burke has received an interim Supreme Court injunction suspending hearings on his appeal against dismissal as a teacher at Wilson’s Hospital Secondary School, reports RTE.
Mr Burke was sacked by the Co Westmeath school board earlier this year.
His appeal against the decision was due to be heard tomorrow morning by a three-member teacher disciplinary panel at a hotel in Tullamore, Co. Offaly.
However, in the proceedings brought against the panel members, Mr. Burke argued that the proposed appeal hearing was flawed and should be stopped.
Mr Burke applied for an injunction on the grounds that one of the panel members, ASTI Secretary General Kieron Christie, should have done so, but refused to withdraw from hearing the case.
Mr Christie, Burke says, is a supporter of a policy that promotes the recognition of “transgenderism” in Irish schools.
He also claimed that he had not received the audio-video clip allegedly contained in the WhatsApp message of an exchange between former Wilson Hospital director Niamh McShane and school board president John Rogers, reports RTE.
He claimed the message was a recording of a school service in 2022, in which he publicly expressed his opposition to the school’s directive to address a male student by a different name and pronoun “they”.
He claims the clip forms an important part of the charges against him that led to his dismissal, and argues that the school should have given it to him before the appeal hearing.
In a ruling this afternoon, Ms Justice Eileen Roberts ruled that Mr Burke had raised legitimate issues in his application and was therefore entitled to an interim injunction to stay the appeal hearing.
The ban, which was granted on an ex parte basis, will return to the Supreme Court next week.
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