Circuit Court turns down an appeal by a Wexford teacher dismissed from her post in a Catholic school.
Eileen Flynn was sacked from her teaching post at the Convent of the Holy Faith, New Ross in August 1982.
Eileen Flynn's relationship with Richie Roche, a single father with three children and with whom she has a child was deemed to be out of line with the moral code of the Convent of the Holy Faith Secondary School, New Ross.
A case of unfair dismissal to the Employment Appeals Tribunal did not rule in her favour. It found that a school with a designated ethos has the right to expect its teachers to live by its moral code, both in the classroom and outside it.
Eileen Flynn subsequently appealed the finding, and took a civil action in the Circuit Court against the Sisters of the Holy Faith, claiming that her dismissal was unfair.
Judge Noel Ryan told the court today that he was sympathetic to all parties involved, but he was working in a court of law. He found that Eileen Flynn was not dismissed because she was pregnant but on the grounds that,
Her lifestyle had become repugnant to the values of the nuns.
The judge also found that Eileen Flynn’s employers had approached the matter fairly and,
In some respects the nuns were far too lenient.
Noting the fact that in some countries women who have children outside of marriage are criminalised, the judge remarked that,
In this country people take a very dim view of this kind of lifestyle.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 4 July 1984. The reporter is Joe O’Brien.
