{"id":137604,"date":"2025-10-22T05:16:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T05:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/137604\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T05:16:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T05:16:15","slug":"yoga-student-claims-he-was-banned-for-anti-christmas-views-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/137604\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoga student claims he was banned for anti-Christmas views \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A yoga student who found himself banned for life from his teacher\u2019s studio after an alleged \u201coutburst\u201d about his opposition to Christmas<\/a> last year has accused her of discriminating against him on religious grounds.<\/p>\n

In her evidence, however, the yoga teacher told a tribunal that the religious element \u201cdidn\u2019t factor\u201d in her decision and that banning the man was her \u201cright as a business owner\u201d due to his allegedly aggressive behaviour. <\/p>\n

Enniscrone<\/a> man Peter McKeon is pursuing a complaint under the Equal Status Act 2000 against his former yoga teacher, Niamh Glackin, trading as Roots Wellness in Ballina, Co Mayo<\/a>, over his lifetime ban from her studio.<\/p>\n

Mr McKeon told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on Tuesday that, having taken up yoga for health reasons some years earlier in Dublin<\/a>, he enrolled as a student at Ms Glackin\u2019s studio in September 2024 and attended around twice a week until the incident on December 16th.<\/p>\n

Giving evidence, Mr McKeon said while he was getting ready for class on the day in question there was \u201cchatter\u201d in the studio that he wasn\u2019t involved with, until Ms Glackin asked him: \u201cAre you all set for Christmas?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI said: \u2018No, I don\u2019t believe in that rubbish. Look at it,\u2019 I says, \u2018celebrating a religious cult which has its origins based on the rape of a child \u2013 that\u2019s absolutely bonkers; no, I don\u2019t have anything to do with any of the Church stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNiamh says: \u2018Oh,\u2019 she says, \u2018well you have to agree with the moral code for the Church.\u2019 I says: \u2018That\u2019s junk, Niamh. Look at the moral code, look at the child abuse, the paedophilia; Tuam and the hundreds of babies\u2019,\u201d Mr McKeon continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe says: \u2018Right, well, we\u2019ll just get on with our yoga,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

After the session ended, Ms Glackin wrote to him, stating: \u201cI feel the studio is not the right environment for you at this time,\u201d and after further correspondence, the yoga teacher confirmed on January 26th last that it was a \u201clifetime ban\u201d, Mr McKeon told the hearing.<\/p>\n

Adjudication officer Brian Dolan asked Mr McKeon why he thought it amounted to religious discrimination. The complainant said Christmas was \u201ca religious festival\u201d that \u201cappalled\u201d him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know Mary was a child mother and impregnating her at that age would be rape, and it doesn\u2019t sit well with me at all in light of the sexual abuse that\u2019s gone on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His case was that in response to his expression of this belief, Ms Glackin had withdrawn her services.<\/p>\n

Human resources consultant John Keenan, appearing for Ms Glackin, put it to Mr McKeon in cross-examination that it was \u201can extreme view\u201d to suggest Christmas was \u201cabout the rape of a child\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just an analysis. I spent a number of years in a seminary. I learned one thing there \u2013 philosophy: get to the bottom of your beliefs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ms Glackin denied asking Mr McKeon about his Christmas plans or saying anything about the Catholic Church\u2019s \u201cmoral code\u201d to Mr McKeon when she gave evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I was setting up the music and incense, my recollection is just of an outburst. Peter \u2026 began shouting and accosting everyone in the room about the raping of children and paedophilia,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in shock. It was a yoga studio. Stuff like this doesn\u2019t really happen,\u201d she said. \u201cMost people come here to bring a little bit of calm into their lives. I was quite shocked; I\u2019ve been operating for three years and I\u2019ve never had any reason to ask anyone to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Glackin added: \u201cI felt incredibly nervous and uneasy. I suppose after chatting at the end of the class, chatting with the people who stayed behind, they were very uneasy, very worried.\u201d She said Mr McKeon had been \u201caggressive\u201d and \u201cvery, very irritated and riled up\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe religious element didn\u2019t factor into my decision at all. It was the aggressive behaviour, the use of the words \u2018rape\u2019 and \u2018paedophilia\u2019 in a yoga class; they just don\u2019t go there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The adjudicator, Mr Dolan, has now completed hearing the complaint and told the parties that he would give his decision in writing in due course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A yoga student who found himself banned for life from his teacher\u2019s studio after an alleged \u201coutburst\u201d about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,2354,5,7,8,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-137604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-mayo","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-workplace-relations-commission"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}