Belfast hotel sued over All-Ireland coverage

[full back]

If I walk into a pub & want to watch the Adult Channel & am refused, can I take the owner to a tribunal?

[Arthur_Friend]

You wouldn't want to bump this fella in a queue of traffic. People like this make me sick.

[JUMBODEMPSEY]

Definately taking things to the extreme.....BUT should a five star hotel not have more than one television and more than one digital receiver in their hotel ??  Makes me think there's something fishy.. and i hope thats not just full back doing whatever hes at watchtin his programmes.....

[David McKeown]

Not that I'm a good barrister but would the hotel not have two as obvious defences to this case.

Firstly soccer is not the preserve of the unionist community nor gaa the preserve of the nationalist community and therefore the guy was not being discriminated against or in the alternative .

If the gaa is a nationalist sport then the hotel still couldnt turn over to it without being in breach of its obligations to its staff to provide a neutral working environment.

Im sure one my better collegues could come up with even more arguments

[orangeman]

If he has Gregory Campbell acting as judge, not only will the Hilton have the judgment passed in their favour but the GA supporter will be taken up the Shankill and will receive 40 lashes as well as being forced to wear a Norn Iron jersey for a month.

[T Fearon]

David, the fact that soccer was being shown but the GAA wasn't, kind of does away with your argument. Now if the hotel had refused to show both GAA and soccer then thats a different matter.

Fact is that major soccer and gaa events were taking place simultaneously,the Hotel could quite easily have accommodated patrons wanting to view soccer or gaelic, but chose not to do so and worse actually refused a request from a patron to do so in terms of GAA.

Cast iron win at a tribunal I would have thought

[kickingmule]

why did'nt he just stay @home and watch it, or just watch it in his local?

nah i reckon he wanted to make a name for himself ...... bitter wee f***er!
all this bollick ...... real gaa people would'nt lower themselves to this crap!

we all know nothing has changed in the 6 counties .... gregory campbell and thousands like him, are alive and well.
is he highlighting this ..... for our wee put down society...... "nah i don'nt think so"

there are some great prod.... gaels in the 6 counties.... who love the gaa to the core ..... and fair play to them ....

its amazing really ....... the way things are in this day and age ..... he could win this case.

maybe this is a bit long winded, ...i'm not  long on the site, ....... TYRONE. are a tonic to gaelic football as ....DOWN were in the sixties

"we don'nt need to agree or diagree  with what this wan**r is up to,
                                                               
                                                                       RISE   ABOVE  THIS  CRAP!!!  

[David McKeown]

David, the fact that soccer was being shown but the GAA wasn't, kind of does away with your argument. Now if the hotel had refused to show both GAA and soccer then thats a different matter.

Not to be antagonistic Tony how does it do away with my argument? The claimaint would have to make out that he was being disciminated against on grounds of his nationalist ethos.  In order to do this he would have to show that soccer is a unionist sport and that unionists were consequently being better treated than he was as a nationalist. 

The respondent would have as far as i can see without reading anymore about it than is discussed here, two very obvious defences.  Namely that niether sport is the sole preserve of either community.  Or in the alternative that each of them are the preserve of the respective community and therefore niether should have been shown on the grounds of a neutral working environment.  The latter argument would therefore negate the discrimination claim but would leave other avenues of claim open for which the claimaint in question in this incident would not have standing.

All that said your probably right they probably will win at tribunal as tribunals are strange creatures

[orangeman]

Whether he wins or not, whether he is a twisted wee bugger or not is not really relevant.


What is relevant is why the Hilton who has more than 1 television I'm sure didn't direct him to somewhere where he could have seen the final.

It sounds like he got someobody who didn't want him to see the gaelic match.

[Maguire01]

To get back to the logistics - i've been in the Hilton lobby and bar. As far as i know there's only one public bar. Therefore, unless this punter was a resident - which he wasn't - the Hilton are not obliged to accommodate him outside of the public areas surely?

[scalder]

Lads come on, the day of All Ireland football final, with an Ulster team competing and your accepting that their was not malice or discrimination on the part of the Hilton in not only choosing to screen the soccer but to put on a 'food and beverage' promotion along side it. They might not be willing to say so but it sounds like they don't want Gaelic games about the place. I've encountered this even among middle class nationalists, they were brought up playing the games, they still have an interest but they are slightly embarrassed about them and send their children to play rugby or soccer. The GAA is for behind closed doors and certainly not the sort of stuff you'd show in a 5 Star hotel, mind you their ice like service and bland interior would lead me to question their real 5 star status.

This type of discrimination is hard to deal with, we get some of down south too, where pubs ban soccer and GAA jerseys but allow rugby jerseys, not acceptable in my book either.

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

Weither you agree or disagree with this fella, he has achieved a good result, highlighting the fact that the Hilton refused to show the AIF, will be remembered and I think it's probably safe to say that the Hilton (and alot of other places) will show the AIF if asked in future.