He appealed against the school board's decision made last January to dismiss him from his position as a German and history teacher at the school. Mr Burke's dismissal from the Co Westmeath school came after he was found by Wilsons Hospital's board of management to have engaged in behaviour that amounted to gross misconduct. The school is a notice party to the application, but the court heard it does not intend to take part in the proceedings. The failure to provide that clip amounts to a breach of fair procedures and natural justice, he claims. He says both he and the panel should have been given it by the school's board in advance of the hearing. He claims that clip is important as the school placed enormous weight on what happened at that event when it commenced the disciplinary proceedings against him that resulted in his dismissal. He claimed the message was a recording of a school service in 2022, where he publicly outlined his objections to a direction by the school to call a student at the school by a different name and the pronoun 'they'. He also bases his application on the ground that neither he, nor the panel, have been provided with an audio video clip contained on a WhatsApp message allegedly exchanged between the Wilson Hospital's former principal Niamh McShane and the chairman of the school's board John Rogers. This, he said, was important given his dispute with the school centres around his refusal to comply with a direction from the school, which he said goes against his Christian beliefs, to refer to a student by a different name and to use the pronoun they. He claims under Mr Christie's leadership the ASTI has "unequivocally" advised schools to accept and use 'transgender' pronouns. Mr Christie, Mr Burke claims, is supportive of a policy that promotes the recognition of transgenderism in Irish schools. In his action against the three members of the panel, Sean Ó Longáin, Kieran Christie, and Jack Cleary, Mr Burke claims the proposed hearing is flawed and should be halted He claims Mr Christie, who is the union representative on the panel, should have, but has declined to, recused himself from hearing the matter. The judge also said the interim injunction granted last week had expired and was to be replaced with undertakings, in the same terms as the injunction, given by the panel. The judge put a timetable in place for the exchange of legal documents and provisionally fixed the hearing of Mr Burke's bid to have the injunction put in place pending the outcome of the full hearing of the dispute to a date in late July. Mr Justice O'Moore said he hoped the matter could be heard before the end of the July, when the current legal term ends. He had no objections to the appeal panel's request for time to respond to his application and added he awaited contact from the respondent in relation to the issue concerning the video clip. Representing himself, Mr Burke said the matter was of some urgency. The first related to an alleged failure to provide certain information contained in a video clip to the panel and Mr Burke by the school.Ĭounsel said there had been a development on that issue, and it was hoped that discrete issue could be resolved between the parties.Ĭounsel said the second ground upon which Mr Burke seeks to restrain the appeal is over his fear or apprehension that one of the panel members, ASTI general secretary Kieran Christie, would be biased against the teacher.Ĭounsel said the panel was contesting that claim but required time to fully respond to Mr Burke's claims. When the case returned before the High Court on Tuesday, Padraic Lyons SC, with Hugh McDowell Bl for the appeal panel, told Mr Justice Brian O'Moore his client intends to oppose Mr Burke's bid to extend the injunction.Ĭounsel said Mr Burke had raised two issues in his application. Ms Justice Eileen Roberts granted him the order after finding he had raised a fair issue to be tried.
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