{"id":483239,"date":"2026-06-04T19:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T19:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/483239\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T19:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T19:56:08","slug":"sna-claims-she-was-forced-out-of-south-dublin-school-after-parents-objected-to-palestinian-scarf-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/483239\/","title":{"rendered":"SNA claims she was forced out of south Dublin school after parents objected to Palestinian scarf \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A special needs assistant alleges she had to quit her job at a south Dublin school over \u201cmistreatment\u201d from parents who objected to her wearing a Palestinian<\/a> keffiyeh scarf.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the worker, Sarah O\u2019Mahony, said their client was relying on the protected ground of \u201cnationality and race\u201d on the basis of her \u201cassociation with people of Palestinian ethnicity\u201d in an equality claim.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Mahony has brought complaints under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 and the Employment Equality Act 1988 against Harcourt Terrace Educate Together National School in Dublin 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Outlining his client\u2019s case, barrister Michael Kinsley said \u201c[Ms O\u2019Mahony] wore certain items of clothing -a T-shirt and a keffiyeh we say are associated with the Palestinian nation, the Palestinian people \u2013 that caused objections from certain parents in the school\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cManagement put pressure on her to no longer wear those items of clothing [and] failed to protect her from mistreatment by those parents who objected,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Kinsley said these events led his client to take a leave of absence and ultimately to resign. <\/p>\n

Counsel said one of his intended witnesses, a teacher at the school, would say he had \u201cthe same difficulty with his wearing of a keffiyeh\u201d and \u201cthe response from parents to that and the response of the principal to that\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said that in October 2025 his client proceeded to file a complaint alleging constructive dismissal under the unfair dismissals legislation, along with a complaint alleging discriminatory dismissal under the workplace equality law and another of discriminatory treatment. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Mahony, counsel said, was relying on the protected ground of \u201cnationality and race\u201d on the basis of her \u201cassociation with people of Palestinian ethnicity\u201d in the equality claims. <\/p>\n

The school is contesting the case, which did not proceed to a full hearing on Thursday. <\/p>\n

Kinsley said WRC administrators had written to his client\u2019s solicitor to say O\u2019Mahony was not entitled to pursue a claim in relation to her alleged dismissal under both the Unfair Dismissals Act and the Employment Equality Act and was required to pick one or the other. <\/p>\n

Kinsley said his client\u2019s solicitor first wrote to say they wanted both complaints to remain live, but later confirmed the unfair dismissals case was to be withdrawn. <\/p>\n

The WRC administrators had, however, \u201celected to extinguish\u201d the equality claim, Kinsley said. Counsel argued that both complaints remained live as the WRC had not \u201cproperly invoked\u201d the legislation providing for an extinguishment of the claim. <\/p>\n

Out of \u201can abundance of caution\u201d, Kinsley said, his client\u2019s solicitor had filed a new equality complaint. <\/p>\n

Kevin Roche, appearing for the respondent, said the claimant\u2019s request that both cases proceed \u201ccannot be done\u201d under the terms of the Employment Equality Act. <\/p>\n

Adjudication officer M\u00e1ire Mulcahy said she would require submissions in writing on the dispute before proceeding. <\/p>\n

She gave the parties four weeks for an exchange of legal submissions on the matter and adjourned. <\/p>\n

Kinsley is instructed by Karl Gill of Ferrys Solicitors in the case; Roche by Catherine Kelly of Mason Hayes and Curran LLP. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A special needs assistant alleges she had to quit her job at a south Dublin school over \u201cmistreatment\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1251,72,4103,8951,12449,207913,207914,3519,61,60,207915,162574,2965,207916,36332],"class_list":["post-483239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-building","tag-business","tag-children","tag-class","tag-concept","tag-end-of-school","tag-going-home","tag-holiday","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-organised","tag-primary-school","tag-school","tag-tidy","tag-vacation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}