Mr Justice Brian Cregan ordered that the anti-transgender schoolteacher be returned to Mountjoy Prison, saying: “You have been dismissed. It is not your place of work. What part of that sentence do you not understand?”

He said he was satisfied on the evidence Mr Burke had trespassed on the grounds of the Co Westmeath school on January 15 and 16, “in flagrant breach” of a court order.

The judge had only released Mr Burke last Wednesday to allow him prepare for a legal case.

But two days later ordered that he be attached, the term used for arrest in civil contempt proceedings, and brought before the court due to further breaches of an injunction restraining him from the premises of the Co Westmeath school.

Mr Burke again came to the school this morning, arriving shortly before 9am accompanied by his brother Isaac.

In the teeming rain, he was stood just inside the school’s gate, his progress up the driveway blocked by a security guard.

Gardaí arrived an hour later in two marked garda cars.

Mr Burke was handed a copy of the judge’s order for his attachment, to which Mr Burke responded: “This is all about transgenderism”.

The garda replied; “This is all about the issue of the High Court order. You’re being brought before the court”.

Gardaí then led Mr Burke to one of the garda cars.

Mr Burke was forced into the car and lowered the window, continuing to protest his arrest as it was about to be driven away.

His brother was filming the arrest on his mobile phone.

Mr Burke, a fundamentalist Christian, was dismissed in January 2023 for gross misconduct after clashing publicly with school management over a direction to staff that a transgender pupil be called by a new name and they/them pronouns.

Despite his dismissal and an earlier suspension, he continued to show up “for work”, even after the school secured injunctions barring him from doing so.

As a result he has spent 564 days in prison over four separate periods and been fined €225,000. He remains on the Department of Education payroll pending disciplinary appeal process, but since last March his salary has been diverted towards the payment of fines and a €15,000 trespass damages award.

Mr Burke was most recently in prison between November 25 and January 14.

Mr Justice Cregan released him “in the interests of justice” to allow him to prepare for a lawsuit he is taking against a Disciplinary Appeals Panel (DAP) that is considering whether the school’s board of management was correct to dismiss him.

In a lawsuit, Mr Burke claims the DAP did not give him fair procedures at a hearing in December. He has also made an allegation of bias in relation to one of the panel members.

Mr Burke was released even after telling the judge he did not need to be released to prepare for that case and that, if released, he would return to Wilson’s Hospital.

On arriving at the school today, Mr Burke declared; “I’m here again… my place of work.”

The teacher has repeatedly and wrongly claimed he was jailed for objecting to “transgenderism”.

Numerous judges have made it clear the teacher has been imprisoned for breaching court orders directing him not to trespass at the school.

He is due back in court on Wednesday in his challenge against the DAP.

The completion of the DAP process is seen as crucial to resolving the long-running dispute between Mr Burke and the school.

The DAP had been due to issue a recommendation by January 9.

This was postponed and a decision taken for the DAP to reconvene on January 10 after Mr Burke made a series of complaints about how a hearing of the panel on December 13 was conducted.

However, the hearing did not reconvene after Mr Burke filed a lawsuit against the panel.

He is seeking an interim injunction halting the DAP process and also wants orders requiring the current three-person panel to disband and a new panel constituted in its place to rehear his appeal.

Among other things, Mr Burke has complained he was not allowed to effectively cross-examine witnesses at the December hearing.

Mr Justice Cregan said last week that Mr Burke had raised “substantive” and “credible” issues in filings prepared against the DAP.