Traveller loses discrimination case after hotel cancels extravagant First Communion party

Lansdowne House, the offices of the Workplace Relations Commission in Ballsbridge, Dublin.

A member of the Traveller community who had spent thousands of euro on a party for his daughter’s First Communion claimed he was discriminated against when a hotel cancelled a day before the event, blaming a roof leak in its function room.

Thomas Casey told an adjudication hearing of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) that he had booked a horse-drawn carriage and a vintage car to bring his daughters to the hotel last May.

He had also spent €1,700 on decorations and hired an interior decorator to adorn the ballroom at a local hotel, as well as arranging a photographer, cake stands, and a “special cake” for the occasion.

However, when he called to the hotel to drop off the cake ahead of the event, he was told that his reservation had been cancelled due to a leak in the roof of the ballroom where it had been due to take place.

Mr Casey said he told hotel management that he would be satisfied to relocate the function to another room, but he was advised that there were no other rooms available.

He claimed that he had been “confronted” by a manager when he visited the hotel and attempted to go past him into the ballroom, but a staff member tried to physically stop him by “pulling around at his shoulder”.

He began recording on his phone and a “brief scuffle” ensued before the manager tried to pull the phone out of Mr Casey’s hand, the WRC heard.

In the ballroom, the complainant said he saw no sign of water on the floor or carpet, and he observed no leaks in the ceiling.

Under cross examination, it was put to Mr Casey that the hotel had made repeated attempts to contact him by phone to notify him of the situation regarding the leak and the cancellation.

A solicitor for the operators of the hotel, The Merryman Management Limited, claimed that Mr Casey had known that the reservation had been cancelled before visiting the premises the day before the Communion.

He accepted that he had “got upset” with staff but denied being aggressive and using foul or abusive language, which the hotel claimed was the reason that gardaí were called.

A witness for the hotel told the WRC that Mr Casey had refused to accept his deposit when they tried to return it, saying that he would sue and get “10 times that amount”.

He denied this and said no amount of compensation could make up for the distress and heartache caused by the cancellation of the event, which was a “very important milestone” in the life of his daughter.

In his decision, WRC adjudication officer Peter O’Brien said a prima facie case of discrimination had been inferred by Mr Casey, and the onus was on The Merryman Management Limited to rebut this inference.

He said the “core question” was whether the hotel’s explanation regarding the roof leak was “reasonable and believable” or whether there was some form of deliberate action to deny Mr Casey as a member of the Traveller community.

Citing photographs of buckets in the ballroom and the sworn testimony of hotel staff, Mr O’Brien said he was satisfied that there had been an unplanned leak in the function room and other parts of the hotel.

There was no “ulterior discriminatory motive” for denying Mr Casey the use of the room, and he therefore found that the complainant had not been discriminated against.

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