Courts

GAA club Fingallians denies claim four children are banned from activities

Sinead O’Farrell’s children entitled to take part in all relevant club activities, court hears

Fingallians GAA Club has denied the four children are barred from activities.

Aodhan O'Faolain
Thu Feb 9 2023 - 15:26

Fingallians GAA Club has denied a mother’s claims that her four young children have been banned from participating in its activities.

Barrister Micheál Ó Scanaill SC, for several officials at the north Dublin club, told the High Court on Thursday that Sinead O’Farrell’s children are entitled to take part in all relevant club activities.

It is not a case that they have been banned from doing so, he said.

Last month, Ms O’Farrell, of Sandford Wood, Swords, Co Dublin, commenced proceedings against several Fingallians club officials seeking orders including an injunction removing the alleged ban against her children Luca (10), Cai (8), Nia (6) and Alia (5).

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Ms O’Farrell claims she, her children and their father, Jason, have been told to stay away from the club.

The action is against club officials Colin Foley (club chairperson), Carl Jones (vice chairperson), Eoin Martin (club secretary), Denis McCarthy (juvenile chairperson), Sarah Nixon (children’s officer) and Pat Ward (disciplinary chairperson).

When the case returned before Mr Justice Brian O’Moore on Thursday, Mr O’Scannail said there was no urgency to the claim as the O’Farrell children were not banned from the club or from participating in activities.

Counsel said there was no evidence they were banned other than an assertion made by the children’s mother.

From his clients’ perspectives, he said, several legal issues arise, including whether the action should be against the club’s trustees rather than the named defendants.

Counsel said it is also his client’s case that the O’Farrells’ membership of the GAA binds them to bring their claim through an arbitration process of the GAA’s Disputes Resolution Authority.

If he was wrong on that point, said Mr O’Scannail, it was the defendants’ case that the dispute should be heard by a court lower than the High Court.

The O’Farrells reject the club’s claims.

Their barrister, Richard Kean SC, said the children would not be before the court if they were allowed to fully participate in all of the club’s activities with their own peer group.

Diametrically opposed

The proposed arbitration process is designed to deal with disciplinary matters and allegations that the GAA’s rules have been breached, he added.

The O’Farrell children did not break the rules and were not disciplined, he said. He wanted the injunction application to be heard as soon as possible.

Mr Justice O’Moore said the case was unusual, with both sides diametrically opposed to each other.

The injunction application should be heard as soon as possible, he said, fixing the hearing for February 17th.

Previously, the court heard the O’Farrells are paid members of Fingallians, Seatown West, Swords, and all of the children take part in both football and hurling.

In a sworn statement to the court, Ms O’Farrell alleges a dispute arose last year following a football tournament for boys under nine years of age in Newry, Co Down. She claims her husband, other parents and volunteer coaches were unhappy with the approach to the tournament taken by Richie Herity, who was the head coach of the club’s under-nine boys’ group.

The fallout from the tournament led to Jason and other parents of children in the under-nine boys; group were fired as volunteer coaches, she claims.

Attempts to resolve the issues through communications and meetings between some of the parents and club officials have failed, she says.

Her family was told in one communication by a senior club official last month to refrain from attending the club until a meeting occurred between her husband and the club’s chairperson, she claims.

The O’Farrells’ solicitors wrote to the club seeking undertakings, including that no steps be taken by Fingallians to prevent the O’Farrell children from accessing the club’s facilities.

In a letter to the O’Farrell’s solicitors, the club said their children are “entitled to the same access to the club’s facilities and activities as all other club members in good standing” and it had “no intention to exclude them”.

No undertakings were given, and Ms O’Farrell initiated a court action seeking injunctions restraining the officials from interfering with her family’s right to attend the club and participate with its teams or groups.

She also wants the court to declare that a message sent by the club to her husband earlier this month purporting to ban the family from training is unwarranted, unjustified, unlawful and has no legal effect.

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