From Eileen Flynn to Enoch Burke

The Irish school system is pivotal when it comes to cultural issues and societal change. In August 1982, Eileen Flynn, an English and history teacher at a secondary school in the small town of New Ross, was sacked after becoming pregnant outside of marriage to a married man who had separated from his wife four years earlier. Fast-forward forty years to August 2022, and Enoch Burke, a German and history teacher at Wilson’s Hospital secondary school in Westmeath, was suspended after objecting to the principal’s instruction to refer to a trans-identified student with they/them pronouns. At the heart of both cases is the question of what constitutes ethical care for students and what is considered good behaviour according to the dominant belief system of the time.

Both Eileen Flynn and Enoch Burke objected to their dismissals. Both cases involved legal proceedings that went all the way to the High Court, where they lost. Each was reported to have been good teachers prior to the events leading to their dismissal, and in both cases the teachers found themselves at odds with the dominant values of their time. Neither teacher was a member of a teachers’ union, but union sources expressed concern about the court decision. Despite the similarities between both, there are significant differences too.

Ireland’s cultural landscape in 1982 was dramatically different from that of 2022. In the early ‘80s, Ireland was still high on the euphoria of the 1979 papal visit when over half the population went to see Pope John Paul II, and was steeped in a kind of naïve innocence, still unaware of the sexual abuse scandals festering behind the public façade of the all-powerful church. Critiquing the Church was anathema.

By 2022, the Catholic Church was no longer the dominant cultural force and gender identity belief had risen in prominence. However, the public were largely still unaware of the implications of Ireland’s Gender Recognition Act of 2015 which had been swept in on the back of the popular same-sex marriage referendum and allowed anyone to legally change their gender by self-declaration alone. Public discussions questioning or critiquing gender identity in 2022 (as now) are treated akin to heresy.

In Flynn’s Circuit Court appeal in 1984 she was described as a ‘gifted teacher’ but ‘obdurate in refusing to cease the association’ with the man she loved. Judge Noel Ryan concluded that Flynn had been sacked because of a lifestyle considered repugnant to the nuns. He famously remarked: ‘in some respects they were far too lenient and condoned the situation for longer than they needed’. He added ‘in other places women are being condemned to death for this sort of offence’ before saying ‘I do not agree with this, of course’.

In March 1985, Flynn’s appeal was rejected by the High Court, where the judge ruled that the nuns ‘were entitled to conclude that the appellant’s conduct was capable of damaging their efforts to foster in their pupils norms of behaviour and religious tenets which the school had been established to promote’.

Enoch Burke was dismissed from his teaching position in 2022 after objecting to the principal’s requirement that staff address a trans-identified student with ‘they/them’ pronouns. Burke interrupted a school service attended by guests and parents to raise his objections and later interrupted the principal at a dinner following the service.

RTÉ’s legal affairs correspondent Órla O’Donnell, reporting on the High Court case in March 2023, noted that Principal Niamh McShane said the school wanted to support students who wished to be known by different names and who wanted gender-neutral pronouns, and that she had taken advice from Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) which had conducted an online workshop for the school.

The High Court judgement on Enoch Burke’s dismissal, delivered by Mr. Justice Alexander Owens, stated that the Board’s apprehension that Burke would engage in ‘harmful and disruptive conduct if he was permitted to teach in the school was rational and reasonable.’

Ireland’s Education Act 1998 (Section 24(3)) sets out a four-stage procedure fordisciplinary actions relating to a teacher’s conduct. Stages 1-3 involve verbal and written warnings, and Stage 4 involves a report to the Board of Management and an opportunity for the teacher to make his/her case after which the Board can decide to suspend the teacher. In cases of ‘gross misconduct’, stages 1-3 can be skipped. These stages were skipped in the case of Enoch Burke.

Principal McShane, in her report to the Board of Management, wrote that she believed Enoch Burke’s behaviour was gross misconduct and that the school could skip disciplinary stages 1-3. The High Court judge agreed: ‘Enoch Burke’s conduct… was capable of being considered as amounting to “gross misconduct”.

It is noteworthy that Enoch Burke is still a registered member of the Teaching Council of Ireland, the professional standards body for teaching. This is despite the fact that his dismissal would have likely triggered a report to the Teaching Council, which has the power to deregister teachers.

The council has struck teachers off the register in the past for misconduct issues such as stealing €100,000 from a school; having sex in a hotel with a former student; locking a student teacher in a school and suggesting a sexual relationship; forging signatures; or inappropriate messaging to students including ‘Are you sexy?’ and describing one boy as ‘such a bender’.

What is considered best for students in secondary schools in Ireland changes over time. In 1982, it was considered harmful for students to be taught by a teacher who was pregnant outside marriage to a man separated from his wife. In 2022, it was deemed harmful for students to be taught by a teacher who vociferously objected to using preferred pronouns and who interrupted a school service and the school principal to voice his objections in a manner many considered disagreeable.

Eileen Flynn died suddenly aged 53 in 2008, just one year after finally securing another full-time job teaching.

Enoch Burke is continuing to contest his dismissal.

Wilson’s Hospital School received their BeLong To quality Mark in 2025. The mark, bestowed upon schools who participate in an 18 month programme, is run by BeLonG To, an influential and well-funded organisation promoting gender-identity belief in Ireland.