The head of JD Wetherspoons has been forced to apologise and pay €6,500 to a Travellers’ rights advocate who won a discrimination complaint after the chain’s bar in Dún Laoghaire refused to offer her a drink, reports RTE.
“I felt such an equal walking into that pub, and horrible walking out,” Margaret O’Leary told Dublin District Court, reports RTE.
When the director of her organisation, Southside Travellers Action Group, was recognised on June 7th, last year, she called it a major accomplishment.
Ms. O’Leary was present at a community event that was organised by Mary Hanafin, a former education minister who was also the Cathaoirleach of the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
Later, she walked out of the council building, crossed the street and went into the JD Wetherspoons-owned Forty Foot pub. There, she was turned away from the bar.
Ms. O’Leary had not been drunk, according to testimony from a retired garda and a former government minister.
“And listening to Ms O’Leary in the box in evidence, she is identifiable as a member of the travelling community; she is proud of her accent as she should be,” Judge Andrews said, reports RTE.
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