{"id":634369,"date":"2026-09-24T09:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T09:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/634369\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T09:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T09:10:13","slug":"belfast-factory-worker-sacked-after-confronting-muslims-praying-in-changing-room-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/634369\/","title":{"rendered":"Belfast factory worker \u2018sacked\u2019 after confronting Muslims praying in changing room \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A legal fund has been launched for a Belfast factory worker who was dismissed from his job for confronting two Muslim men praying in the changing room.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The video was recorded in February this year by a man who entered the changing room of Hovis\u2019 Belfast site off the Boucher Road in south Belfast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The person in the video tells two men, who appear to be using prayer mats, that he was \u201cin here to change, not watch this f***ing crap\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The video records the man telling them to \u201cget the f*** out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/northern-ireland\/belfast-factory-worker-sacked-after-confronting-muslims-praying-in-changing-room-6LBTZJTHORG5LKCAGOQU4YUY3M\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Belfast factory worker &#x2018;sacked&#x2019; after confronting Muslims praying in changing room\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/B6MCKSXUG5DBFFPBTP6GSNB6O4.png\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/northern-ireland\/drumcree-decision-opportunity-to-gain-confidence-of-unionist-community-WMNDATSVRNMNJOPP5PONEWOG4M\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Drumcree decision &#x2018;opportunity to gain confidence of unionist community&#x2019;\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/JQ7W5RGHAZC5DN5LODUPTZKGJU.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He goes on to say that \u201cthis is not a prayer room lads, come on\u201d and for the two men to \u201ctake it outside\u201d because he wants to use his locker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The man recording the video then says he \u201cfinds it offensive\u201d that the two men were praying in the room and asks them to leave the changing room and find somewhere else to pray.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The two men then exit the room before the video ends.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"An from the video posted on social media in February\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2XQQF52H4RG53CDQ5WMPJVLAEQ.png\"  width=\"800\" height=\"631\"\/>An image from the video posted on social media in February <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A fundraising page has now been set up for Matthew McDonagh (57). It claims that he lost his job in May of this year as a result of the video. It says Mr McDondagh has worked at the firm for 20 years and had \u201cno previous disciplinary history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The fundraiser, launched on Tuesday, says \u201cMatthew\u2019s contract has now been terminated with company\u201d and has asked for donations to cover his legal costs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A spokesperson for Hovis said legal proceedings were ongoing in connection with the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cDue to the fact that legal proceedings are ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment at this stage,\u201d a company spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">More than \u00a31,000 has been raised via the donation page.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The fundraising appeal has been shared by a number of far-right activists based in the UK.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Irish News attempted to contact the individual who had set up the GoFundMe page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A legal fund has been launched for a Belfast factory worker who was dismissed from his job for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,269462,61,60,38577],"class_list":["post-634369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-hovis","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-south-belfast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634369","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=634369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}