A campaigner for secularism who claimed former lord mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu “likes to hang out with religious leaders” has failed in a discrimination claim over a series of religious services held almost four years ago.
John Hamill alleged his organisation, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in Ireland, and other “non-faith” groups, were denied access to public resources granted when the services were held in the garden of the Mansion House in December 2020.
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) rejected Mr Hamill’s complaint under the Equal Status Act 2000 in a decision published on Tuesday.
Faith groups held a series of religious services outside the Mansion House as part of a programme marking major religious festivals which were disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the tribunal heard. Mr Hamill’s case was that non-religious groups represented by an organisation styling itself the Dublin City Inter-Non-Faith Forum should have had a slot.
Lawyers for Dublin City Council said the Interfaith Forum had organised the Rewind 2020 events and that Mr Hamill ought to have taken any alleged discrimination up with it.
The Dublin City Inter-Non-Faith Forum, Mr Hamill explained, comprised the Alliance of Former Muslims, the Church of Naturalism and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in Ireland – whose adherents also refer to themselves as “Pastafarians”.
Giving evidence at a hearing in March of last year, Mr Hamill claimed Ms Chu, who was lord mayor in 2020, “likes to hang out with religious leaders” and that “non-faith groups were uniformly and universally excluded in all circumstances”.
Counsel for the council, Claire Bruton BL, asked Mr Hamill in cross-examination “who else” was in his group. He replied that it was a “very small organisation” and he was “not at liberty to list members”. He later said the membership was “definitely single figures at the minute”, but he hoped it would grow.
In her evidence, Ms Chu said many of her friends were of “a non-religious background” and one was a member of Mr Hamill’s church. “It’s not something I would discriminate against,” she said.
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Ms Chu said she was not sure she had seen initial letters sent by Mr Hamill to the lord mayor’s office before the 2020 Christmas break, adding that most staff were working remotely at the time. She said Mr Hamill continued to write in 2021 seeking access to the Mansion House garden for his proposed ceremony, but the country had gone back into a “harsh” Covid-19 lockdown up to April of that year, and no groups were admitted before that May 17th.
Mr Hamill claimed the council had been telling him that a non-religious ceremony in the Mansion House garden could not be facilitated, but Ms Chu had “solicited” other groups to attend events there.
Ms Bruton said Mr Hamill’s claim was “misconceived” in law, as the Equal Status Act did not recognise discrimination against groups, only individuals.
Asked what redress he was seeking, Mr Hamill said he wanted “nothing financial”, but would “like to have 30 minutes in the garden” with members of the former Muslim alliance and Naturalism group.
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In his decision, WRC adjudicator Jim Dolan wrote that the Dublin City Inter-Non-Faith Forum “is not directly comparable” to the Dublin City Interfaith Forum.
He wrote that the latter had “existed for over a decade and has been active in organising and promoting events… throughout that period”, had a regularly updated website and social media presence, had a full-time employee, and was registered as a charity with 21 constituent members.
He said it was “unclear” when exactly the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in Ireland, the Church of Naturalism in Ireland and the Alliance of Former Muslims had formed their alliance.
Mr Dolan concluded that the complaint was not well-founded and that it had failed.
