{"id":493665,"date":"2026-06-11T04:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T04:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/493665\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T04:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T04:29:14","slug":"mcdonalds-customer-completely-initiated-altercation-with-security-guard-before-being-ejected-wrc-finds-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/493665\/","title":{"rendered":"McDonald\u2019s customer \u2018completely initiated\u2019 altercation with security guard before being ejected, WRC finds \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The evidence of a McDonald\u2019s<\/a> security guard who denied calling a man a \u201cqueer\u201d and said he \u201cdidn\u2019t know the meaning of that\u201d has been ruled credible by a tribunal as it dismissed an equality claim by the customer. <\/p>\n

The customer, Paul Cronin, was found by a Workplace Relations Commission Adjudicator (WRC)<\/a> to have \u201ccompletely initiated\u201d an altercation with a security guard at the restaurant on 24th January 2025, when he said he was ejected from the premises. <\/p>\n

The security guard, Alfred Edward, told an equality hearing last month that Cronin called him a \u201cblack monkey\u201d during the row \u2013 an allegation the WRC made no specific ruling on in a decision just published. <\/p>\n

The tribunal has rejected a complaint brought by Cronin against McDonald\u2019s franchisee Aarval Ltd, alleging discrimination on the grounds of homosexuality \u2013 a claim denied by the business. <\/p>\n

Cronin, who identifies as gay, claimed last month that Edward threw him out of the restaurant because he was \u201cprejudiced\u201d and \u201ccompletely biased\u201d towards him.<\/p>\n

He told the tribunal last month he was sitting in the restaurant having a coffee, and asked a female customer to lower her voice while speaking on the phone. The woman later gave him a \u201cdirty look\u201d and, when he made a phone call of his own, told him he was being \u201cvery loud\u201d, he said. <\/p>\n

He said he later went to the security man \u201cto explain the interaction with the lady\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe wouldn\u2019t discuss the matter. I found him quite dismissive. Because of this I asked him could I speak to a manager. He told me, abruptly, no, and it was at this point he called me a queer,\u201d Cronin said. <\/p>\n

Under cross-examination, he agreed with the restaurant operator\u2019s solicitor, Robert Laffan, that he had emailed McDonald\u2019s Ireland customer services two days on from the incident and made \u201cno reference to discriminatory language\u201d. <\/p>\n

Asked how Edward could have known what his sexual identity was, Cronin said: \u201cI think he would have known by my demeanour … I think it\u2019s reasonable by objective interpretation he would have assumed I was gay.\u201d <\/p>\n

Edward said in his evidence that he had no awareness of Cronin\u2019s sexuality. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he called me was: \u2018You black monkey\u2019,\u201d Edward said. He said Cronin took issue with his handling of the situation between the complainant and the female customer and had claimed the guard \u201csided with the lady\u201d. <\/p>\n

Laffan asked Edward whether he had called Cronin \u201ca queer\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know even the meaning of that. I don\u2019t call him such a name. I\u2019m just hearing it for the first time in my life,\u201d Edward said. <\/p>\n

While cross-examining Edward, Cronin said: \u201cYou said there I called you a black monkey. Why on earth would I call you that, such a racist term?\u201d<\/p>\n

In his decision, Brady wrote that Cronin\u2019s argument was that Edward should have known he was gay because he \u201ccame across as gay\u201d. <\/p>\n

He called this a \u201cfeeble suggestion\u201d. The equality complaint was dismissed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The evidence of a McDonald\u2019s security guard who denied calling a man a \u201cqueer\u201d and said he \u201cdidn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,4856,43,40,38,41,39,6465],"class_list":["post-493665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-mcdonalds","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-workplace-relations-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493665","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=493665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}