Northern Ireland: Hotel – Discrimination Against “Travelling People”

McDonagh v Thom (Trading as Royal Hotel Dungannon) [2007] NICA 3M was a member of the Irish travelling community (these are itinerant people, similar to the Romany people but of Irish extraction). They had pre-booked functions at the hotel for January, April and September. During the function in January there was an outbreak of violence that included the use of knives. Because of this staff at the hotel refused to work at any function involving this group. T cancelled the April and September bookings.The Northern Irish Court of Appeal held that the functions were cancelled because of the previous violence and not on grounds of racial or ethnic discrimination. The Irish travellers were permitted to use other facilities at the hotel.

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