{"id":97398,"date":"2025-10-01T17:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T17:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/97398\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T17:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T17:59:09","slug":"aer-lingus-feared-barbra-streisand-effect-if-it-got-injunction-over-sacked-pilots-posts-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/97398\/","title":{"rendered":"Aer Lingus feared \u2018Barbra Streisand effect\u2019 if it got injunction over sacked pilot\u2019s posts \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A senior manager at Aer Lingus<\/a> has told a tribunal she feared that a pilot-turned-whistleblower would experience the \u201cBarbra Streisand effect\u201d if an injunction was sought to stop him posting online about his dispute with the airline. <\/p>\n

The airline\u2019s company secretary, M\u00e9abh Gallagher, was giving evidence as the company opened its defence of whistleblower penalisation and unfair dismissal against Aer Lingus Ltd by sacked airline captain Tom O\u2019Riordan before the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC)<\/a> this week. <\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Riordan\u2019s complaints under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 against Aer Lingus Ltd are all denied by the airline. <\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Riordan was dismissed from his \u20ac153,00-a-year job last September after what Aer Lingus\u2019s legal team has called \u201ca campaign of disruption\u201d by the former passenger jet captain. It included the alleged posting of \u201cfalsehoods and untruths\u201d on social media, a picket on its offices, and a hunger strike. <\/p>\n

His lawyers say he should have been shielded by the laws on whistleblower protection. The airline\u2019s barrister said its former captain \u201cdefamed Aer Lingus in the postings\u201d and committed \u201cwrongdoing that can never be protected\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Riordan\u2019s barrister, David Byrnes BL, told the WRC that Mr O\u2019Riordan and his first officer were instructed to fly an empty Airbus A320 passenger jet, EI-DEN, from London\u2019s Heathrow airport to Dublin Airport on a repositioning flight on 5th June, 2023. <\/p>\n

\"\"Should we put more money into Irish soccer? <\/p>\n

He submitted that after-engine fumes were noticed on the same aircraft the day before, it appeared there were engine works carried out at Heathrow, and that Mr O\u2019Riordan was \u201ctold the aircraft was fine\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn approach [into Dublin] there were fumes identified by the crew. Fortunately, the plane landed without incident. My client was shifted by ambulance to Beaumont Hospital and spent five days under the care of a neurological team,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy client attributes that to the noxious fumes he was exposed to on the flight,\u201d he said. The complainant never returned to work prior to his dismissal in September 2024, following three disciplinary processes over his online posts, the WRC has heard. <\/p>\n

Aer Lingus\u2019s director of safety and security Conor Nolan told the tribunal it was later determined that one of the jet\u2019s engines required a repair that had to be done \u201coff the wing\u201d, in what he agreed was a \u201cquite rare\u201d event.<\/p>\n

The tribunal heard that in the summer of 2024, amid a series of escalating disciplinary processes against Mr O\u2019Riordan concerning posts on social media, Ms Gallagher \u2013 Aer Lingus\u2019s company secretary and data protection officer \u2013 wrote to him stating that he \u201cpublished the personal data of colleagues\u201d online without authorisation. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you do not remove or delete [the posts] without delay Aer Lingus will consider all options up to and including legal action,\u201d the letter of July 1st, 2024, read. <\/p>\n

Cross-examining Ms Gallagher, Mr Byrnes asked her whether there had been \u201ca discussion had about injuncting\u201d his client under the Data Protection Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d the witness said. \u201cIt\u2019s the \u2018Barbra Streisand effect\u2019. If you send an injunction to take down material, you shine a spotlight on it. We asked him, and filed a complaint to the Data Protection Commission,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Mr Byrnes said her letter had been a \u201cbaseless threat\u201d as no legal action had been brought against Mr O\u2019Riordan, and the witness confirmed there had been no legal action. <\/p>\n

Mr Byrnes said her allegations of a data breach were \u201cnothing more than a bare assertion\u201d since she had not kept copies of the posts. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a solicitor of 20 years\u2019 standing. Are you in the habit of making allegations … without any supporting evidence?\u201d counsel asked. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was supporting evidence, I went on LinkedIn and saw it,\u201d the witness said. <\/p>\n

Mr Byrnes was instructed by solicitor Setanta Landers for the complainant in the case. Tom Mallon BL was instructed by Katie Rooney of Arthur Cox for the airline. <\/p>\n

The case continues on Thursday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A senior manager at Aer Lingus has told a tribunal she feared that a pilot-turned-whistleblower would experience the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[2442,79,18,19,17,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-97398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-aer-lingus","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-workplace-relations-commission"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97398","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=97398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}