Enoch Burke's release from prison has been ordered by The High Court.
This was after Mr Justice Brian Cregan said that there has been a "material change in circumstances" last May which saw the school teacher lose his appeal against his dismissal from Wilson's Hospital School in Co Westmeath for gross misconduct.
Since September 2022, Mr Burke has spent almost 700 days in prison for breaching court orders to stay away from the school.
Now, Judge Cregan stated that the Department of Education had stopped paying Mr Burke's salary, and had ultimately exhausted all internal appeals regarding his employment. His dismissal from the school had been confirmed and his employment had been terminated.
As a result, the Judge ruled that this marked a key stage in the dispute and it was now time to release Enoch Burke from prison, pointing out that should he turn up at the school, it was unlikely that he would cause any major disruption as the school holidays had started.
While he acknowledged that Mr Burke was capable of causing a disruption by turning up the school grounds in September, he said that this could be resolved by another application sent to the court.
The Judge added that the permanent injunction remains in place which stops him from trespassing at the school. Should he trespass the school again, the Judge said that he will be reported to Gardaí and he may face a criminal prosecution.
In court according to reports in RTÉ, the Judge said that while Enoch Burke was "perfectly entitled to his religious view he is not entitled to his own truth. Every time he says that he is in prison because of his opposition to transgenderism, that is a clear falsehood. The truth is that a court has a duty under the law to set out precisely why Mr Burke is in prison and it has done so in written judgments on each occasion. The truth is that Mr Burke is in prison because he is trespassing on school property".
Judge Cregan added: "Mr Burke is entitled to his religious views on transgenderism. He is free to shout those views from the rooftops - so long as he remains outside the school gates and does not trespass and disrupt the education of the young pupils at the school".
He also described Mr Burke as an "unwelcome intruder on the school premises intent on causing as much disruption to the education of its young pupils as he can in his campaign against transgenderism"
The Judge did insist that Mr Burke is entitled to protest outside the school gates, but not to set foot on the property itself, including entering the corridors or cause disruption to the day to day running of the school and "try to bully and berate security guards and disobey court orders", which the Judge said were the actions of a teacher who lost his "moral compass".
The Judge also mentioned that Mr Burke is seeking to appeal to the Supreme Court, but stated unless the High Court order of a permanent injunction is overruled, this order is within the law and must be obeyed.
The schoolteacher's obligation to pay fines imposed by the court will also remain and the exact amount of money to be paid set to be confirmed by a court at a later date.
