Teacher Enoch Burke has returned to the school that sacked him to protest his suspension and dismissal after refusing to facilitate a pupil’s ‘gender transition’.

As the new term began Monday, Mr Burke arrived and took up position in a corridor in the school.

A statement from a family spokesperson said Mr Burke “will not endorse an ideology which he as a Christian disagrees with and which will have serious repercussions for young people”.

“He has a right to his religious beliefs and believes it is wrong that he is being denied access to his place of work.”

Mr Burke’s dispute with Wilson’s Hospital school in Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath, had its roots in an instruction by the former principal, Niamh McShane, in May of last year that teachers call a transgender child by a new name and with new pronouns.