Gorey Gaelscoil debacle - astonishing legal smackdown

Yes, to keep him away from the school.

The alternative was him back immediately.

Far from it. I could tell you a few stories, but from the sound of it you're not interested in anything beyond the headlines. I don't know what the situation is now, but at the time the Children's Ombudsman would only investigate a complaint if a student was still attending the school.

When the school started in 2002, it was very small and barely had enough numbers to stay open. We only had prefabs near where Naomh Eanna is now located in Gorey. So basically staying there for them to investigate a complaint would have required staying in very close quarters.

Everyone loves a tryer

I see you were a former pupil. I was involved in the school for years. That was a shocking incident, and I contacted the principal immediately after it happened (as I'm sure many other parents did). You suggested that similar had happened before? We spoke to lots of other parents and heard nothing of the sort. We'd have had our child out of there immediately had we thought otherwise. We may have been wrong of course, and perhaps you know something we don't.

I think she trained student teachers in Trinity and is now training them in Marino.

I’m not missing your point, but you’re way off in thinking that the BOM couldn’t have dismissed him in accordance with employment law. The fact is they didn’t do that, and that’s what caused this outcome. From the opening post alone, I haven’t counted how many times the judge pointed out the actions of Ms. Ní Dhuinn and the Board were unreasonable, but it’s a lot!

"In a scathing criticism of Ms Ní Dhuinn and the Board of Management, Mr Justice Cregan stated that: “the suggestion therefore that Mr O’Suird was plucking numbers out of thin air was false. The persons responsible for this debacle are Ms. Ni Dhuinn and the board of management. Almost every single decision they took leading to Mr. O’Suird’s dismissal was unreasonable; the decision by Ms. Ni Dhuinn not to complete the investigation into the single child incident by end January 2013 was unreasonable; her decision never to finish the single child investigation was unreasonable; her decision to keep Mr. O’Suird on administrative leave while she carried out her other investigations was unreasonable; her investigation into these other matters was a rush to judgment; her decision to make allegations against Mr. O’Suird in respect of eight other matters without a comprehensive report was unreasonable; her decision to let all these other allegations hang over him throughout the hearing was unreasonable and tainted the disciplinary hearing; her allegations of fraud and fraudulent misrepresentation were manifestly unreasonable; her refusal to interview any member of the previous Board in circumstances where Mr. O’Suird said that everything he did was done with their consent was manifestly unreasonable; her delay was unreasonable; the board’s decision to dismiss Mr. O’Suird was unreasonable; its concealment of evidence was unreasonable; its decision to appoint a new principal even though Mr. O’Suird had appealed to WRC was a blatant attempt to pre-empt the jurisdiction of the WRC, the Labour Court and the High Court and to set at nought certain remedies these bodies might order including reinstatement.”

"Ms. Ni Dhuinn was made chairperson of the Board of Management in December 2011. Within weeks she had destroyed all the work done by her predecessors. It is a shocking legacy".

The Board could have dismissed him properly, but they didn’t, and it’s pointless going over the case again here when it’s already been through the Courts and a decision was made. It has nothing to do with keeping him away from the school on the basis of any child protection issues, but if you want to take that angle, the Board still failed, miserably.

Yes, she is highly experienced and has also sat on teaching councils which have removed teachers.

You could call her "New School" where being violent to 7 year olds should not be a sanction free offence.

We need more of her and less of that sort of cretin.

No we don’t. She isnt “new school” or a caped crusader. It’s laughable that you see her as a shinning light for child protection when she didn’t even follow HSE recommendations. A big red flag in my opinion. The judges summary is quite clear of the inadequacies and unreasonableness of her behaviour. There are no hero’s here on either side. Whether you like it or not her behaviour was highly unprofessional , immoral ( in terms of with holding evidence) and not conducive with the teaching profession values and ethos. ( available on the teaching council’s website) She is not someone who should be lecturing trainee teachers nor sitting on investigative boards. The teaching profession is comprised of more than just teachers and all should be held to the highest standards.

Can you link / give a reference number / or where you heard that was the case of the relevant guidance of the time as I’d like to read up on that. I have not come across any reference to updated guidance.

tks

You could argue to the contrary that she saw a minor admin mistake as being more serious to the violent incident you allege happened.

I allege happened? You sure?

Unfortunately that's not her opinion, that's the guidance, "cooking the books" is gross misconduct and grounds for dismissal, being violent towards a young child isn't.

Again it comes back to our woeful legacy which continues today on child welfare.

You are going a bit over the top there boss.

Absolutely, what the Principal did was wrong but it was very minor in the scale of things.

The incident was referred to the HSE and they said the incident did not constitute physical abuse of the child.

The BOM have consistently been shown to be wrong in their treatment of the Principal. You seem to think the BOM were right yet the school lost a WRC case in 2018, a Labour Court case in 2021 and now a High Court case in 2023. I wonder why the BOM lost so often. I'm going to go with they clearly acted the b0llix with the Principal.

what the Principal did was wrong but it was very minor in the scale of things.

I don't think assaulting a child is minor nor do I think this was a once off. Boss.

one which would put procedures and practices in place to prevent incidents such as this occurring again. 

What would they be?

I would go so far as to say that she should not be allowed to continue on as an education lecturer nor continue to be associated with the Teaching Council.

Personally I think people who physically abuse children should not be let inside a school, let alone be allowed run them.

I guess we will have to agree to differ.

I don't think I'd be the outlier here though.

The people charged with protecting the welfare of the students in that school didn't think it was minor and they went out of their way to keep him away from that school.

That trumps woeful procedure protections and our criminal lack of child welfare in this country.