A TEACHING COUNCIL fitness to teach inquiry concerning Enoch Burke may not go ahead as planned this week following a hearing in the High Court this morning.
The inquiry was originally scheduled to meet over three days from tomorrow, but Burke yesterday applied to the court for an injunction against the three members of the Teaching Council panel to stop it from taking place.
The former teacher was officially dismissed from his role at the school last month, after his sacking by Wilson’s Hospital School was upheld by a Disiplinary Appeals Panel (DAP).
This week’s inquiry was expected to relate to Burke’s trespassing at the school in breach of a High Court injunction, something which has seen him jailed for more than 700 days.
The Irish Times reported yesterday that Burke’s application for an injunction centred on claims of bias against the chair of the panel, Andy Pike, as well as issues with a witness giving evidence anonymously and other procedural matters.
The case returned before the High Court this morning, when an application was made by the director of the Teaching Council to be joined as a notice party to Burke’s application.
Counsel for the director, Eoghan O’Sullivan, argued before Judge Brian Cregan that the nature of the inquiry meant that Burke should have to apply for a judicial review, rather than an injunction.
He also said that while there had already been a number of preliminary hearings of the inquiry, last week was the first time that Burke had raised issues of bias on the panel.
O’Sullivan also said that Burke had been told that the Teaching Council inquiry would consider his request for an adjournment and for Andy Pike to recuse himself when it met tomorrow.
It was then decided that another judge, Micheál D O’Connell, should consider the matter.
Enoch Burke, who appeared in court in person, began objecting to this before his sister Ammi and mother Martina began heckling Judge Cregan, who ordered the pair to leave the courtroom.
Judge Cregan then rose, and the case was transferred to Judge O’Connell’s court.
‘Chasm’
When proceedings began again later in the morning, O’Sullivan repeated his arguments before Burke began questioning why a barrister for the Teaching Council director was in the courtroom.
The former teacher said he had served a notice of motion on three members of the inquiry panel yesterday, and that he wanted to know how O’Sullivan had “got his hands” on relevant court documents when the director was supposed to be independent.
“There should be a chasm between the director and [...] the panel,” Burke told the court.
He then requested that Judge O’Connell ask O’Sullivan to tell the court how this happened.
“I’m not going to carry out an inquiry at your request,” the judge said.
Burke then repeated the request dozens of times during a heated back-and-forth exchange with Judge O’Connell that lasted around half an hour.
He argued that the administration of the panel should be an independent exercise, but that the director’s presence in the courtroom suggested that this may not be the case, before claiming that the judge had “an obvious lack of concern”.
Martina Burke then began heckling Judge O’Connell, who warned Enoch that he could “take prompts from wherever” but that his family did not have a right to an audience.
After a number of minutes, O’Sullivan stood and offered to provide Burke with the information he requested, but the former teacher interrupted and told the judge “you should have asked him”.
Isaac, Martina and Ammi Burke then began repeating this, prompting Judge O’Connell to tell Enoch again that his family did not have a right to an audience in the court.
“You seem to be more concerned with the format Mr O’Sullivan would be asked the information than to receive it,” the judge said at one point.
Burke responded to say that he wanted to be confident that the judge was “not coming in here as an actor” but as someone with “the bona fides” to make a sound judgment in his case.
He then asked Judge O’Connell to recuse himself on the grounds that he would not ask O’Sullivan how pleadings and papers that were served on the panel “came to his knowledge”.
The judge then refused to recuse himself on the basis that the issue was a procedural matter in the context of the hearing and therefore fell outside the grounds on which a recusal would be entertained.
Ammi Burke then began heckling the judge, saying that O’Sullivan “shouldn’t know about these proceedings” before being warned twice by Judge O’Connell and told she would be removed from court if she interrupted again.
‘This is not an interview’
Burke continued to argue with the judge for a number of minutes, before his mother Martina also began heckling by saying her son had “a right to a judge that upholds the law”.
Judge O’Connell then warned Martina Burke twice and threatened to have her removed from court if she interrupted the proceedings again.
Burke then told the judge: “I have constitutional right to a fair and just judge who will uphold the law, who’ll be seen to uphold the law. That will be seen to be done.”
Judge O’Connell responded that “this is not an interview” before telling Burke that he would ask O’Sullivan to respond to his application if he did not wish to proceed with other points.
When Burke again urged him to ask where O’Sullivan had obtained the information sent to the panel, Judge O’Connell said: “I’ve told you about 15 times now that I will not ask him. Do you want to proceed or not?”
Martina Burke then accused the judge of being “told what to do by Judge Cregan” before she was ordered to leave the courtroom.
Burke’s brother Isaac then interrupted, and Judge O’Connell asked him to identify himself; when he refused, he was given an immediate final warning that he would be removed if he disrupted proceedings again.
The judge then said it was “the definition of insanity” to ask for the same thing repeatedly and expect a different result.
“I’ll tell you what is insane: to ask me for the 15th or 16th time to do what I will not do,” he said.
Ammi Burke then said it was “scandalous” that the judge was calling her brother insane, before Judge O’Connell also ordered her to leave the courtroom.
When Burke continued to ask for the question to be put to O’Sullivan, the judge replied: “You have asked me nearly 20 times now.”
Burke argued that it was a “very serious matter”, prompting the judge to respond: “And you’ve said that eight times now.”
The hearing continued like this for another number of minutes, before Judge O’Connell threatened to terminate Burke’s application and to return him to Castlerea Prison.
“At what point do you think I’m going to say yes now that you’ve asked me 20 odd times?” he said.
“I’m not going to stay here all day. There is another case waiting to get on, but if you continue ding-donging […] I’m just going to have to terminate the entire application.”
‘Different things’
Burke then accused the judge of a lack of concern for the matter by refusing to ask the question.
“Not asking a question and not showing a concern are two entirely different things. One does not follow from the other,” Judge O’Connell said.
After the judge eventually said that he had been asked by Burke “probably 40 times at this stage”, O’Sullivan once again stood to explain the matter.
He told the court that the information had been sent by Burke to two general Teaching Council emails, and that various parties were copying each other in correspondence, which had enabled the director to see it.
The judge eventually agreed that the director of the Teaching Council could be joined as a notice party to the application, before asking for him to make representations regarding Burke’s application for an injunction.
Counsel told the court that his client would offer Burke to make an application for both an adjournment of the inquiry and for Pike to recuse himself tomorrow, and that if either were agreed to, the inquiry would not go ahead.
He said that regardless of the outcome, evidence in the inquiry would not be heard this week so that both sides could consider the matter further.
The court then rose for lunch to allow Burke to consider whether to agree to the offer.
The case continues this afternoon.