A Christian teacher at the centre of a long-running dispute with a school over his refusal to use preferred pronouns has been imprisoned for a third time.

Enoch Burke was arrested on Monday after defying a court order to stay away from Wilson's Hospital School in County Westmeath, Ireland. 

A judge at the High Court in Dublin ordered that he be returned to Mountjoy Prison for contempt. 

Burke has been imprisoned twice before after continuing to turn up at the school despite court orders to stay away.

He was suspended by the school in August 2022 after he refused to use a transgender pupil's new name and "they" pronoun. The school sought court orders to keep him off the campus after he continued to turn up saying he was ready to teach. 

He was imprisoned in Mountjoy in September 2022 after refusing to abide by a court order barring him from entering the school premises.

He was later released but sent back to the Dublin prison last September after continuing to turn up at the school. He was freed this June but was warned not to attend the school as the court order remained in place. 

Burke defied the court order again, arriving at the school on 22 August for the start of the new term.

He has so far spent over 400 days in prison and admitted that life behind bars is "very difficult". He told Sky News that he was upholding his religious freedom. 

"I teach everyone who's in front of me. I teach every single student," he said. 

"But when I am commanded, when I'm told that I can't have my religious belief anymore, when I'm told I have to confess belief in transgenderism, instead of my simple belief, which is male and female, that's just a breach simply of my rights."

The case is to be reviewed on 11 October.