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Sacked GAA presenter says BBC 'racially harassed' him
 national |
rights, freedoms and repression |
other press
 Tuesday April 27, 2010 14:15 by Bimpe Archer - Irish News April 27 2010
Former face of the BBC Northern Ireland's GAA coverage unleashes extraordinary attack
The former face of the BBC Northern Ireland's GAA coverage has unleashed an extraordinary attack on the corporation for downgrading its coverage of Gaelic games and subjecting him to "racial harassment".
Self-proclaimed "Mr GAA" Jerome Quinn is representing himself in a case against the BBC in which he alleges unfair dismissal and discrimination.
He was sacked last year after his employer discovered he had been posting anonymous criticism of its coverage of Gaelic football and hurling on a GAA discussion board.
The award-winning presenter said they were an attempt to "inform fans of what was behind anti-GAA coverage in BBC NI".
 BBC 'racially harassed' former GAA corr Jerome Quinn - Irish News 27 April 2010 At a fair employment tribunal yesterday Mr Quinn read from a 14-page statement which alleged:
- Harassment on religious and racial grounds because he was "Catholic and Irish".
- Pressure to move GAA stories to the bottom of sports bulletins and criticism for using the term "in the north" during a broadcast.
- BBC promotion of "Protestant-supported sports" such as the North West 200 motorcycle race over the GAA.
- Attempts to manipulate voting for the 2008 Sports Personality of the Year so that a GAA player would not win.
This is for entire GAA community Quinn tells tribunal
by Bimpe Archer
Former television presenter Jerome Quinn has said he is representing not just himself but the "entire GAA community" in a fair employment case against BBC Northern Ireland.
Mr Quinn claimed he was "demoted, devalued and demoralised" towards the end of his two decades at the corporation. This, he said, had a "damaging effect on my career and on the wider GAA".
Mr Quinn was sacked last year after his employers discovered he had criticised their Gaelic games coverage on a GAA discussion site.
Yesterday he opened a case against the BBC alleging unfair dismissal and alleged discrimination. He is representing himself in the case which is scheduled to last for the remainder of the week.
The Omagh-born sports commentator presented BBC NI's The Championship for 17 years before he was replaced in 2008. In February last year Mr Quinn was removed from presenting the Sunday Sportsound Radio Ulster show.
At the opening of yesterday's case, Mr Quinn admitted criticising his employer on an internet discussion board was a "poor error of judgment for which I apologised", but said his dismissal was a "disproportionate response".
"I lost my career and suffered serious reputational damage," Mr Quinn told the tribunal.
The journalist, who has been doing contract work as a sports presenter, claimed he was the subject of "conscious discrimination (due to his) Catholic and Irish background".
"(I received) less favourable treatment than if I was Protestant, British and not associated with the GAA," he told the panel, insisting he was "subjected to harassment on religious and racial grounds".
"GAA is still discriminated against in BBC NI," he said.
"I have an obligation not just to myself but to the entire GAA community which has been badly treated by BBC NI for the last century.
"I genuinely hope that change comes within BBC NI so that it's treated with parity with other sports which it deserves."
Mr Quinn accused his bosses of reducing the prime-time coverage of Gaelic games and having a "negative approach to GAA reportage".
"(There was) an increase in Protestant-followed sport and decrease in GAA which disadvantaged Catholics," he said.
This directly affected him: "As I was Mr GAA."
Mr Quinn, who said he was the first Catholic to be employed in a production presentation role in BBC NI sport in 1989, said his appointment heralded an improvement in GAA coverage, until a change that began around four years ago.
By that stage, Mr Quinn said he was "established as a senior broadcast journalist and the face of GAA sports coverage in BBC NI".
He told the panel that there is now a "massive imbalance" in the coverage, despite the sport's popularity.
"It became known as a 'And finally' sport," he said, because it is relegated to the end of bulletins.
"GAA's strength is its roots in local community. That should be celebrated," he said.
Mr Quinn said he found his rota altered to give him early morning radio shifts "for the first time in a decade" which was "seen as a demotion and made without consultation".
The award-winning presenter claims he was "continuously overlooked" and the BBC showed "a clear lack of appreciation for my public profile" when he was dropped from All-Ireland coverage.
He claimed his bosses were "imposing a Protestant and British prejudice".
"There was prioritisation of Protestant-followed sport (which) created or afforded opportunities for Protestant presenters while minimising opportunities for GAA presenters such as myself."
Mr Quinn claimed attempts to skew sports coverage included "moves to influence voting for (the) 2008 Sport Personality of the Year so that it would not be won by a GAA player, working to manipulate (the) judging panel".
The tribunal heard his career "continued to suffer at an alarming rate and GAA coverage continued to be the last item if at all".
"I felt humiliated by demotions which attracted embarrassing media coverage," he said.
Mr Quinn insisted his fateful contribution to message boards was "anonymous" and "an extension of a practice I had been doing for a number of years".
He said he was "informing fans of what was behind anti-GAA coverage in BBC NI".
After his dismissal he said he was "hounded by the media and quizzed by all sides of the GAA community", but that he "maintained silence".
However, he told the panel he was left "financially in a dire situation at the start of the recession".
Mr Quinn said he could have given up on his case "many times in the last 13 months" because he did not have the money to fight it.
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Comments (17 of 17)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17The GAA and Soccer and Rugby were all invented within the same 20 year span in the middle of the 19th century.
They are newer than the Steam Engine and are all about the same vintage as the telephone.
The GAA no more represents Irish Culture than does the telephone.
hurling is one of the oldest field games in the world. another poster jumps to defend cultural imperialist supremacy. yes, the GAA was established at same time as many games and sports where being standardised and codified but that doesnt take away that the sport spurred on the people for full economic, social, political freedom. In many societies, culture as a part of defiance and civil disobedience is very important. One could pose that the above poster would not have his free state limited independence if it was not for the GAA, IRB, Land league and the individuals that bonded them together and were part of wider cultural renaissance.
It was the channeling of their desire to be distinct and free, not on the same par as the phone
Ex-GAA presenter accuses BBC of race discrimination
By Aine Fox April 28 2010
VETERAN BBC Northern Ireland sports presenter Jackie Fullerton yesterday became embroiled in an unfair dismissal case taken by the station's former GAA chief who is claiming racial discrimination.
Jerome Quinn -- the former face of BBC Northern Ireland's GAA coverage -- was sacked by the BBC last year after having been discovered criticising his employer through anonymous posts on an internet forum.
Mr Quinn, who is representing himself at an employment tribunal in Belfast, launched a blistering attack on his former employer as he opened his case on Monday alleging a "Protestant and British prejudice" within the organisation.
Mr Quinn, who presented 'The Championship' for 17 years, yesterday claimed Mr Fullerton had liaised with his BBC bosses to ensure a judging panel for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards in 2008 would not favour a GAA winner.
In his role as organiser of the judging panel for the awards, Mr Quinn said he had a meeting with Mr Fullerton in which "he made it very clear that GAA should not have a chance of winning against someone who had won an Olympic medal or a Ryder Cup tournament".
Mr Quinn, from Omagh, Co Tyrone, further alleged that he received an email soon after from his sports editor to inquire about the judging panel and make a change to the panel that would "lessen the chances of the GAA person winning the award".
Yesterday's three-member panel heard further statements from Mr Quinn -- who was revealed to have claimed job seeker's allowance at one stage since being dismissed -- relating to how the "GAA suffered on a daily basis" in terms of coverage on BBC radio and television.
Mr Quinn also detailed incidents which he said amounted to harassment on "religious and racial grounds", including overlooking him for other sports -- citing that he was disinterested in anything but GAA.
He added that he had been made aware of a rumour blaming him for endangering the personal safety of his former boss after his picture was posted on a GAA forum.
"He is alleging that I was responsible for the photo in which he appeared and the comment which followed," said Mr Quinn.
Discussion
Mr Quinn denied having anything to do with the picture and said subsequent discussion on the matter within the BBC may have unfairly formed part of the reasons for his dismissal.
He also referred to previous media coverage which he said backed up his claims that the BBC did not give equal treatment to GAA among other sports. "I feel it suited the BBC to blame me for the prolonged criticism of BBC Sport NI from the GAA," he said.
BBC lawyers are expected to begin their cross-examination of Mr Quinn today.
Opening his case yesterday, Mr Quinn read a 14-page statement which alleged: religious and racial harassment because he was Irish; Promotion of "Protestant-supported sports" over GAA; and attempts to manipulate voting to stop a GAA player winning the 2008 Sports Personality of the Year award.
Mr Quinn said his sacking in 2009 cost him his career as a presenter and caused "serious reputational damage".
He claims he was the subject of "conscious discrimination" because of his Catholic and Irish background.
The case will continue for the rest of the week.
- Aine Foxm, Irish Independent
(Funny, no coverage in the Irish Times - maybe waiting to report what the BBC has to say today, more important than reporting Mr Quinn's allegations, perhaps?)
Second day of Jerome Quinn unfair dismissal case against BBC
"Hurling is one of the oldest field games in the world. another poster jumps to defend cultural imperialist supremacy."
No it ain't.
Virtuallly every culture on earth has ancient field games.
There have been similar games to hurling and handball played right across the world for millennia.
The rule differences between Gaelic Football and soccer are so trivial it beggars belief that the Nationalistic GAA pretend that Soccer is some dreadful "Foreign Code."
I have no intrerest in sport.
I can hardly tell the difference between Soccer and Gaelic Football.
Yet Nationalists had "bans" etc. against Soccer players.
To them the trivial avtion of kicking a soccer ball was Treason against "Old Erin."
Stick sports originating on these Islands are.......... Hockey..........Golf........Hurling.......Cricket........and Scottish Curling.
All have the same ancient Celtic origins.
All involve the same action.
One hits a ball with a stick for fun and recreation.
.
Hoult yer whisht there, and don't forget croquet, which started as "crookey" in Co Louth in the 1830s.
In a few years the GAA will become a money-spinner with pro players and massive sponsorship. It has to own the game 100%. It will need max coverage on TV. Its spokespeople on TV want to show maximum coverage today. How pathetically PC to wrap up the less-than-ideally-maximum coverage on the beeb with a slur of racism. How naive of anyone to take it seriously.
At least it is no longer divisive on language, members attending "foreign games", police members etc. All very twitching-net-curtains at the time. The ultimate was in its London clubs minutes of the past, where "foreign games" were foreign to Ireland, but not London.
"Hoult yer whisht there, and don't forget croquet, which started as "crookey" in Co Louth in the 1830s."
Thanks for that info culchie.
The word Croquet sounds so Norman I assumed that it was a French game originally.
.
THE Irish Catholic identity of a BBC Northern Ireland sports presenter was the "elephant in the room" in discussions with senior colleagues, an industrial tribunal was told.
Co Tyrone man Jerome Quinn claims he was unfairly dismissed by BBC Northern Ireland and discriminated against because he was Irish and Catholic.
He was sacked by the BBC -- where he had been the self-styled face of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) -- in March last year after he was found to be posting online comments criticising the broadcaster's coverage of Gaelic games.
The journalist claims coverage of Gaelic games by BBC Northern Ireland and Radio Ulster had been scaled back and his role diminished when a new head of sport, Shane Glynn, took over around 2005.
The effect of the scaling-back was insulting to people "in the same group" as him in the sports department, Mr Quinn said.
The tribunal heard that in 2007 and 2008 Mr Quinn had informal meetings with four senior colleagues to discuss his concerns about his role.
But under cross-examination by Tariq Sadiq, acting for the BBC on the third day of the industrial tribunal yesterday, Mr Quinn said that he did not raise allegations of discrimination in those meetings.
He said: "To me it was the elephant in the room.
"It was the undercurrent, but to me it was obviously the area we were looking at, but I didn't want to mention it.
"I thought if I mentioned that, it would have gotten round the building.
"It would have been even more detrimental."
As part of the claim process Mr Quinn lodged questionnaires at the BBC but Mr Sadiq said the allegations in the questionnaire were personal and did not back up a claim of indirect discrimination. The barrister said: "It's all about me, me, me, isn't it, Mr Quinn? You refer to 'me' on three occasions.
"A lot of it is about me but the answers I was seeking would have been relevant to Irish Catholics," Mr Quinn said.
In his witness statement, Mr Quinn said: "I appealed to Mr Glynn to rethink his constant downplaying of GAA, which was insulting as well as divisive.
"There was the unhappiness of the GAA at how (news programme) Newsline was enjoying putting the boot into the GAA whenever there was a negative GAA story.
"They cut back their Sunday radio coverage... the institution of Sunday Sports Sound was wiped from the airwaves."
The tribunal is expected to last three weeks.
Presenter Jerome Quinn claims he was sacked by BBC because he is an Irish Catholic
Facebook campiagn in support of Jerome Quinn launched:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=122143851132685&v...=info
One poster refers to:
"the severe lack of coverage given to GAA, despite it being watched by the majority of people in the north (a phrase banned by the BBC!)."
BBC ‘tried to exclude GAA from awards’
News Letter 28 April 2010
.....
Mr Quinn also said he had been given 101 rota shifts in 2008, which he argued was unusual in that he was jointly the most senior BBC sports broadcast journalist.
More junior reporters in the department were given little or no early morning shifts in comparison, he said.
Although he had been heavily involved in the BBC’s GAA coverage for 17 years, he said a management review had decided to take him away entirely from coverage of the sport, something which had not applied to any other reporter.
He had also been taken to account for using the term “in the north” in a radio bulletin, but he had emailed senior BBC manager Mike Edgar to assure him that he had not intended any political connotation with the term.
Mr Quinn said that Mr Glynn accused him of “using too much GAA” on a radio bulletin, when there had been breaking GAA stories. But Mr Quinn outlined several other bulletins from around the same period which were 95 per cent soccer, along with some rugby.
He added that Mr Glynn had “admitted he did not ever say to another reporter that there was too much soccer or rugby” in another bulletin.
He also referred to what he said was the first complaint Mr Glynn had made about him. It related to an internet discussion board on sport which Mr Quinn had been taking part in.
He said a photograph of Mr Glynn was posted followed by comments which Mr Glynn alleged were threatening.
Although his manager had claimed he was directly involved, Mr Quinn denied this strenuously.
And although it was not used as grounds for his dismissal, Mr Quinn felt this had unfairly coloured the preliminary investigation against him.
Funny, not in Irish Times again today
About 99% of Irish people do not know much about the rules of American Baseball.
I would hazard a guess that about the same percentage of British know much about the GAA.
The rules of cricket are bizzare.
And,to a Londoner, GAA games are about as bizzare as cricket looks to a Galwegian.
The Brits don't complain when RTE skips covering Cricket.
Not much audience in Ireland for Cricket.
Norwegians don't complain when RTE doesn't cover Norwegian skiing.
Blaming racism is absurd .
"He had also been taken to account for using the term “in the north” in a radio bulletin, but he had emailed senior BBC manager Mike Edgar to assure him that he had not intended any political connotation with the term."
An ordinary geographical term.
Shows you the strange mental world some people live in.
.
The BBC have used the term "In the North " for decades about reporting Ireland.
As have RTE.
As have Irish Times and the Irish Independent and the Cork Examiner.
"The Troubles in the North" is normal language in the South.
.
Maybe the post from Galwegian is parody but the BBC is the state broadcasting company of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, I seem to remember the teams of Tyrone and Armagh - parts of the territory of that state, winning the All-Ireland Gaelic Football championships in the recent past. The lack of popularity of Gaelic games in other parts of the UK should not be an issue for BBC Northern Ireland.
By Catherine Lynagh
Sacked sports presenter Jerome Quinn claimed jobseekers allowance after losing his BBC post, an industrial tribunal heard yesterday.
The revelation came to light on day five of the tribunal, which is hearing claims from Mr Quinn against his former employer.
The Co Tyrone man, who is alleging unfair dismissal and discrimination on the grounds of his Irish Catholic identity, told the tribunal yesterday that he spent last year building professional relationships in an effort to gain freelance work.
The tribunal also heard Mr Quinn registered his details with jobseekers in a bid to find work after his BBC firing.
In an effort to secure regular work, the sports reporter cultivated relationships with news outlets across Ireland and registered his details as a freelance lecturer with educational institutions in the North and South of Ireland.
Day five of the tribunal was the last opportunity for Mr Quinn to detail the amount of money he alleges he has lost as a result of his sacking by the BBC.
During yesterday’s hearing, the tribunal panel heard that on many occasions throughout last year he worked for free in a bid to “sell ideas” through his new web video business to prospective clients.
These ideas, the tribunal heard, “often did not lead to paid work”, according to Mr Quinn.
Mr Quinn also said that on occasion he did not receive payment for work which was promised to him. As an example, he said: “I did a voice-over job for the University of Ulster at Jordanstown and the promise of pay never materialised.
“So the expense, on my part, was not remunerated.”
The sports journalist also said he was awaiting payment for filming a hockey DVD for a Bangor school.
Mr Quinn was dismissed by the corporation last year after he posted comments online criticising its coverage of Gaelic games.
At Thursday’s hearing he asked the panel if evidence about his finances could be heard in private.
Panel chairman Orla Murray replied: “It is not normal to have the details heard in private.”
He said he would apply for a private hearing.
Yesterday, Mr Quinn’s finances were not heard in private, but monetary details of his 2009 earnings were not articulated at the hearing.
The tribunal continues.
"Maybe the post from Galwegian is parody."
No it ain't.
What is tragi-comical is when the "in the north" is regarded as a political term in the north.
On his first visit to Northern Ireland as British home secretary, Reginald Maudling declared: "For God's sake bring me a large Scotch. What a bloody awful country.Make it a double."