A Nigerian man and his Traveller girlfriend lost their €38,000 claim for defamation and assault at the Dublin Circuit Civil Court yesterday.
Mr Francis Okega, of Benburb Street, Dublin, and Ms Nellie Keenan had claimed he had been picked out of a group of people entering Boomerangs Night Club, Temple Bar, Dublin.
He said a security man, Mr Robert Dunne, grabbed his shoulder and said "get the fuck out of here you black bastard", before dragging him upstairs to street level.
Mr Dunne denied having used such words and told Judge Elizabeth Dunne he had refused entry only to Ms Keenan because he had formed an opinion she was too drunk to be allowed in.
Judge Dunne, in dismissing the claim, said mistakes had been made by both sides on the night in November 2002.
She accepted it was more likely Ms Keenan who had been asked to leave because of a mistaken judgment by Mr Dunne that she was drunk.
"I do not want it to go from this court that I believe she was drunk," she said. "I don't doubt that both probably jumped to the mistaken conclusion it was because of a racist decision to discriminate against them, and while I don't think that was the position, I think that is what they thought at the time."