The mother and sister of jailed teacher Enoch Burke, Martina and Ammi Burke, were arrested outside Castlerea Prison yesterday as members of the Burke family attended the facility to visit Enoch Burke.
Mr Burke, who has now spent approximately 600 days in prison after repeated breaches of an order barring him from attending Wilson’s Hospital School, was transferred from Mountjoy Prison after receiving a P19 behaviour-related sanction.
Footage captured by one of Mr Burke’s sisters shows Martina and Ammi being confronted by a group of Gardaí before both were shown to a Garda van equipped with a holding cell.
It is understood that the women, once placed in the van, were conveyed to the female unit of Mountjoy Prison, the Dochas centre.
On the 4th of March last, Mr Justice Brian Cregan ruled that the women were “guilty” of “contempt in the face of the court” after he initiated contempt of court proceedings against them.
On that date, neither Martina nor Ammi Burke attended the High Court to hear the judgment in respect of them, although their son and brother, Dr Isaac Burke, was in attendance.
The contempt proceedings related to the “shouting” and “interruptions” made by both women at the hearing of an application of Enoch Burke heard on the 20th of February last, which were struck out as being “moot”.
When Martina and Ammi were directed to make submissions to defend themselves against being held in contempt, both Martina Burke shouted up at Justice Cregan, insisting that her son was in jail due to his refusal to call a child “they”.
When Ammi Burke gave her submissions, she accused the court of being “desperate to strike out these proceedings” Enoch had taken against a member of a disciplinary panel that had been established to review the circumstances surrounding her brother’s suspension from Wilson’s Hospital School.
Mr Justice Cregan has stated that the Burkes’ “family circus” could no longer be tolerated in their “abuse” of the courts.
Enoch Burke, speaking via video link from Castlerea Prison, said this was a “fearful and nefarious” judgment.
You can read a court report on the Burke women’s submissions here, and excerpts from the judgment of Justice Cregan here.