Enoch Burke was released from prison earlier this month without purging his contempt because Justice Brian Cregan said there had been a “material change in circumstances”. These circumstances included a Disciplinary Appeal Panel refusing Burke’s appeal against dismissal for gross misconduct, his Department of Education salary ceasing, Wilson’s Hospital School closing for holidays and the school indicating that they had no desire to continue to keep him in prison.

Although Burke has already initiated a fresh judicial review seeking to quash the dismissal and to reinstate him to the payroll, the spirit of Justice Brian Cregan’s ruling was correct.

Burke has already spent nearly two years in prison. Contrast this with Cathal O’Connor (40), a businessman from Farmleigh Manor, Sligo, who was jailed for two years for vicious assaults on three 13-year-old boys, who had been on his property making “a little house out of furniture they found in the prefab”. O’Connor’s actions included choking, punching, kneeing, headbutting, falsely imprisoning and even brandishing a saw while threatening to cut off limbs.

Certainly, Burke’s self-righteous stubbornness is the reason that he has spent so much time in prison. Nonetheless, the length of his incarceration seems disproportionate. His most violent acts consist of shouting – whether it be at many judges, a Church of Ireland bishop during a religious service, or the former principal of Wilson’s Hospital, Niamh McShane.

Holidaying as a single parent: ‘Families look very different than they did 20 years ago’

Ken Early:........

© The Irish Times