Ninth Level Ireland

“A college academic who was made redundant from his post months after 23 colleagues signed a petition alleging repeated errors in tests he prepared has been awarded €7,748 for his unfair dismissal. Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) adjudication officer Davnet O’Driscoll has ruled that the college compensation payment to the course director is in addition to the redundancy sum the man has already received …” (more)

[Gordon Deegan, Independent, 3 October]

“Ali Selim, the former part-time Trinity lecturer who courted controversy for comments about female genital circumcision, has been awarded €7,500 by the Labour Court after it ruled he had been dismissed unfairly by the College …” (more)

[Donal MacNamee, University Times, 16 September]

“A university lecturer at the centre of controversy last year over television comments he made about female genital mutilation (FGM) has won his unfair dismissal case against Trinity College Dublin (TCD) …” (more)

[Gordon Deegan, Irish Times, 23 April]

“A university lecturer at the centre of controversy last year over TV comments he made about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has won his unfair dismissal case against Trinity College Dublin (TCD) …” (more)

[Gordon Deegan, Independent, 23 April]

“A former professor of dentistry is accusing Queen’s University of unfair dismissal and breach of contract. Prof Philip Lamey, a specialist in oral medicine, was employed by both the Belfast Health Trust and the city’s university …” (more)

[BBC News, 12 August]

“The Dublin Institute of Technology failed to ‘show humanity’ after it gave a science lecturer with five years’ service just two weeks’ notice that she was to lose her job, a tribunal heard …” (more)

[Mark O’Regan, Independent, 11 October]

“Former lecturer at Dublin City University Dr Seán O’Nuallain has been awarded €45,000 for his unfair dismissal, by the Employment Appeals Tribunal. The case was an appeal by the university against the recommendation of a Rights Commissioner in the case …” (more)

[Alison Healy, Irish Times, 4 November]

“Cahill -v- DCU, Supreme Court. Judgment was delivered by Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan on December 9th, 2009, with Mrs Justice Susan Denham and Ms Justice Fidelma Macken concurring …” (more)

[Irish Times, 18 January]

“Even by academic standards, it is a distinguished CV. A visiting scholar at Stanford University, where he directs an independent non-profit research centre, and the author of two major books on cognitive science, Dr Sean O’Nuallain holds an MSc in psychology and a PhD in computer science from Trinity …” (more)

[Watchdog on Higher Education in Ireland, 12 December]

“Taxpayers face a legal bill of €1.2m after Dublin City University lost a three-year court battle to dismiss an associate professor. And taxpayers could also be saddled with a compensation bill for the academic over the damage done to his reputation …” (more)

[John Walshe, Independent, 11 December]

(The Supreme Court opinion is available here.)

“A college lecturer who called on the DCU president to reveal whether his father was a Nazi apologised for his controversial web blog yesterday. Dr Sean O’Nuallain admitted language used on his internet blog was ‘over the top’ and ‘excessive’ …” (more)

[Shane Hickey, Independent, 10 December]

“Environment Minister John Gormley intervened in a row between a college lecturer and his university boss which remains unresolved seven years later. The involvement of the then Dail Deputy in the dispute between Dr Sean O’Nuallain and Dublin City University (DCU) president Ferdinand Von Prondzynski in May 2002 was outlined at a hearing of an Employment Appeals Tribunal yesterday …” (more)

[Grainne Cunningham, Independent, 9 December]

“A barrister asked for an Employment Appeals Tribunal to be adjourned for a short period yesterday after a witness referred to him as a ‘thug’. Tom Mallon made the request after Dr Seán O’Nuallain, a former lecturer at Dublin City University (DCU), said he stood by the comment he made on a blog after an earlier sitting of the case …” (more)

[Steven Carroll, Irish Times, 8 December]

“Dublin City University (DCU) has spent €880,000 in legal fees in the past two years, much of it on two of the most contentious staff disputes in the history of the college, the Sunday Independent can reveal. Last week, DCU president Ferdinand Von Prondzynski was forced to take the stand at the Employment Appeals Tribunal to deny that his father was a member of the Nazi party, in a row over whether a college lecturer was dismissed from his post back in 2002 …” (more)

[Daniel McConnell, Independent, 2 August]

“A university lecturer who is in dispute with DCU called the president of the university ‘a person without honour’ and referred separately to three university colleagues as ‘criminal’, ‘traitor’ and ‘idiot’ in his blog, the Employment Appeals Tribunal heard yesterday. Dr Sean O’Nuallain was a lecturer in computing at the university from 1987 until the dispute arose in 2002. He subsequently set up the University Blog on Academic Tenure in Ireland …” (more)

[Pamela Duncan, Irish Times, 31 July]

“A university head yesterday denied he had tried to ‘gag’ one of his lecturers and told how he received a ‘lashing’ from a government minister over controversial comments the lecturer had made. DCU president Ferdinand von Prondzynski claimed that lecturer Sean O’Nuallain had ‘repudiated’ his contract of employment by being absent from his duties for prolonged periods, failing to turn up for meetings and for not being there for students …” (more)

[Fergus Black, Independent, 31 July]

“A row between a college lecturer and his university boss boiled over onto the internet when a web blog called on the president to reveal whether his father was a member of the Nazi party. The blog was one of a number of exchanges in a dispute that has dragged on for more than six years and centres on whether a college lecturer was dismissed or resigned from his post as a computer applications lecturer at Dublin City University in 2003 …” (more)

[Fergus Black, Independent, 31 July]

“Imperial ordered to pay £63K to academic who made fraud accusations. A clash between senior academics that led to the resignation of a professor has resulted in Imperial College London being forced to make a £63,500 payout. An employment tribunal found that Manuel Graeber was constructively dismissed from his job as a professor of neuropathology after he complained about changes to research costing and authorisation forms that were made without his knowledge …” (more)

[Melanie Newman, Times Higher Education, 23 July]

“A professor who resigned after managers overruled his marking was not unfairly dismissed, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled. Paul Buckland, professor of archaeology at the University of Bournemouth, failed 14 out of 16 candidates who resat an examination in 2006. His marks were approved by Bournemouth’s examination board, but the papers were later revisited and the number of failures reduced. Brian Astin, the chair of the board of examiners, approved the higher marks without consulting Professor Buckland …” (more)

[Melanie Newman, Times Higher Education, 21 May]

“Both Connell Fanning and Paul Cahill won victories at the High Court as private citizens, which have temporarily protected tenure, and both these verdicts have been appealed by state bodies using taxpayers’ money to the Supreme Court. Should either lose, there will be attenuation of tenure; should both lose, summary dismissals will be legal for all staff at universities …” (more)

[University Blog on Academic Tenure in Ireland, 12 October]