A brother of Irish teacher Enoch Burke has been further remanded in custody during a sitting of Cloverhill District Court.
Simeon Burke, 24, from Cloonsunna, Castlebar, Co Mayo, appeared before the Cloverhill District Court charged under Section 6 of the Public Order Act.
Mr Burke was charged with threatening and abusive behaviour following disturbances at his brother’s Court of Appeal hearing last week.
At Tuesday’s hearing at the Cloverhill District Court, Simeon Burke said he was representing himself and his sister Ammi was present as a “legal adviser”.
He attempted to make a disclosure on the basis that his arrest was unlawful.
Judge Cephas Power said this would be a matter for trial as the Burkes continued to speak.
“I need to be allowed to speak. I am being incarcerated and the arrest is unlawful,” Mr Burke said.
Mr Burke said when someone is arrested they need to be told the reason for the arrest and the legal basis for the arrest.
“If that is not done, the arrest is not valid,” he said.
Mr Burke said he was attacked by gardai and never told why he was being arrested.
“I am being deprived of my liberty on the basis of an unlawful arrest,” he said.
He said four or five gardai had attacked him and dragged him out of the courtroom.
Ms Burke said he should be allowed to make his disclosure.
Mr Burke said he was being detained while he had upcoming barristers’ exams.
He was remanded in custody with consent to bail and Judge Power said the matter would return on 28 March.
Judge Power said bail was available to Mr Burke if he wanted to take it up.
Mr Burke is detained at Cloverhill Prison.
Chaotic scenes broke out at the Four Courts in Dublin last week, as a judgment was delivered dismissing Simeon’s brother Enoch Burke’s appeal against injunctions barring him from attending a Co Westmeath school.
Enoch Burke was suspended from work on full pay last year pending the outcome of a disciplinary process with Wilson’s Hospital School, which arose from incidents concerning a row over a request to address a student by a new name and the pronoun “they”.
He had previously argued that he could not accept “transgenderism” due to his Christian beliefs, and that the orders issued by the High Court were “manifestly unconstitutional and unlawful”.
Although the Court of Appeal agreed to hear his case, the President of the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice George Birmingham, said it would have “great difficulty” with someone who may “pick and choose” what orders of the court he abides by.
Despite the court orders, Enoch Burke has been seen on the grounds of the secondary school several times.
Several members of the Burke family were forcibly removed from a courtroom by gardai after repeatedly interrupting a judgment being read out at the Court of Appeal.
Simeon Burke was subsequently arrested and brought before the court charged with a public order offence.
In the three judgments from each of the Court of Appeal judges issued after the court had adjourned last week, they unanimously ruled to dismiss Enoch Burke’s appeal against the High Court’s orders.
