Enoch Burke has taken a legal challenge aimed at overturning a decision upholding his dismissal from his teaching position at a Co Westmeath school and seeking an order reinstating him to the Department of Education payroll.Burke claims he has suffered a “gross injustice” as a result of the handling of his appeal against dismissal.Recently freed by a High Court judge from prison after a total of 700 days for contempt of court orders to stay away from Wilson’s Hospital School, Burke filed his challenge this week.His judicial review proceedings are against the three-member disciplinary appeals panel (Dap) that decided his appeal over his dismissal from the school, the Minister for Education, and the school board of management.Burke will have to secure leave from the High Court to bring the proceedings.In those, he wants various orders, including one quashing a decision delivered on May 20th last by the Dap, comprising Claire Callanan, John Irwin and Seamus Lahart, dismissing his appeal against his “purported dismissal” from his teaching position at the school.He wants the court to remit his appeal for fresh consideration by a differently constituted Dap and a further order requiring the minister to reinstate him on her department’s payroll in respect of his employment at the school. His employment there began in August 2018 and he was suspended in August 2022 arising from his conduct in public towards the then school principal after the conclusion of a school religious ceremony. The principal had earlier requested teachers to address a pupil by their chosen new name and using the pronouns they/them.[ High Court orders Enoch Burke’s release from prisonOpens in new window ]Enoch Burke. Photograph: Colin Keegan, Collins Photos Burke claims that amounted to a “demand” that all staff “accept transgenderism” and he publicly asked the principal to withdraw it.Arising from his repeated breach of court orders to stay away from the school pending the outcome of disciplinary proceedings, Burke spent five separate periods in prison for contempt. He was freed last week without purging his contempt, but Judge Brian Cregan said the school could make a fresh application to jail him if he turns up at the school when it reopens in September. Burke has also been fined an estimated €260,000 over his contemptAmong Burke’s grounds of challenge are claims that the Dap failed to discharge its duty to give him, in line with his constitutional rights, a fair hearing of his appeal, and failed to ensure it was conducted in accordance with fair procedures.He claims the failure of Callanan, a solicitor, to recuse herself from hearing the appeal was unlawful, contrary to natural justice and fair procedures and contrary to the relevant departmental circular governing such appeals. Callanan, he claims, failed to disclose her relationship, and that of her husband, to the Church of Ireland and the school, which is a Church of Ireland school. The chair of a Dap is required to be independent, Callanan was not independent, and a reasonable and impartial observer would have a reasonable apprehension of objective bias arising from her chairing of the panel, it is claimed.Burke also claims the Dap’s decision to allow a solicitor and barrister for the school board a right of audience during the appeal hearing, and/or to cross-examine Burke, was unfair and unlawful and contrary to the circular.It is “extraordinary” that an employer would be granted legal representation against an unrepresented employee at an internal appeal, it is claimed.