Travellers win case over golf club ban

Five members of the Travelling community are each to get £1,000 in compensation after being barred from a golf course.

Five members of the Travelling community are each to get £1,000 in compensation after being barred from a golf course.

Dungannon Golf Club in Co Tyrone has also agreed to consider all future applications for membership without discrimination on the grounds of race.

The out-of-court settlement was announced yesterday following a decision to refuse the men permission to play the parkland course in June 2000.

The Northern Ireland Equality Commission chief, Ms Joan Harbison, who backed the legal action, insisted no sections of the community should have to endure racism.

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"No one should be excluded from playing sports, shopping or from a social life just because they belong to a particular group or community. Members of the Irish Traveller community are entitled to receive the same treatment as members of the settled community."

Officials at Dungannon and the Ulster Branch of the Golfing Union of Ireland were unavailable for comment.

It is understood the men had played the course along with non-Travellers, but when they later returned, this time unaccompanied, they were refused permission and asked to leave. Their case was taken to a county court under the Race Relations (Northern Ireland) Order before the club issued an apology and admitted its guilt.

It also accepted that its practices and procedures were unlawful.