A historian who lost out to a candidate 25 or 30 years her junior in a “very tight” race for a lecturing job at the University of Galway has failed to make out an age discrimination claim.
Dr Jackie Uí Chionna pursued the complaint under the Employment Equality act 2000, challenging a 2024 recruitment competition which appointed a part-time lecturer in history at the university.
Six candidates were shortlisted from a field of 17 applicants for the post. Dr Uí Chionna, a teaching assistant at the university since 2004, was placed last in the rankings after interview, the Workplace Relations Commission heard in March.
Dr Uí Chionna’s trade union, SIPTU, argued it was “not plausible” that the winning candidate – identified only as Dr X in a decision published today by the tribunal – could have outscored the complainant at interview.
Dr X, the union rep argued, was “at most in her late 20s [or] early 30s” and had two years’ experience in teaching “at best”; while Dr Uí Chionna was 62 when she went for interview in June 2024 and had “over 20 years’ teaching and research experience”.
The union argued Dr Uí Chionna’s marks for research “do not reflect her excellence”, having secured a Bodleian fellowship at Oxford and published three books.
“At the time of interview, [Dr X] had not yet published her first book,” it was submitted.
It was “not plausible” for the complainant have been outscored by Dr X on leadership and strategy in view of the winning candidate’s “relative youth”, the union rep argued.
Dr Uí Chionna was “well known in Galway” and had made an “exceptional” contribution to community and the college as a historian, the union argued – adding that it believed Dr X “could not have such experience”.
Dr Uí Chionna had “delivered countless public lectures in person and online” and “presented on radio and on television in both Irish and English”.
“It is her opinion that she performed better the assessment portrays,” her union said of the public presentation and interview performance score.
Ibec, which appeared for the university, argued: “If the complainant’s logic were accepted, it would render it legally impossible for a university to appoint a younger candidate over an older candidate, regardless of merit.”
“The first-ranked candidate was appointed purely on merit,” it was further submitted.
Dr Kevin O’Sullivan, deputy head of history and philosophy at the University of Galway, said in evidence the six candidates scored between 76 and 86 at interview.
Dr Uí Chionna “went over time in her interview and did not show good time management”.
Dr X, he said, “showed very strong performance” in presentation skills, module drafting and timing, as well as “strong teaching attributes”.
Adjudication officer Peter O’Brien dismissed Dr Uí Chionna’s complaint in a decision published today.
Dr Uí Chionna “displayed the education and experience for the post”, but “so did all the other successful candidates”, he wrote.
The decision came down to “very fine distinctions”, he found.
Having received and examined the interview notes for all six candidates after his hearing, Mr O’Brien wrote: “Nothing is apparent in the notes to lead the adjudicator to determine that the interview panel displayed any age bias,” Mr O’Brien wrote.
“The scoring was very tight, and the successful candidate outscored the complainant on three of the six areas,” Mr O’Brien wrote.
He did not document specifics in his decision for confidentiality, as the other candidates were not party to the case, he wrote.
Mr O’Brien wrote that it was “a stretch too far” to conclude that the panel “were biased, in some shape or form” in favour of all five candidates who placed ahead of Dr Uí Chionna.
He found that the case for age discrimination had not been proven, as the facts show the process used by the interview panel had no age bias and the successful candidate was appointed after a “fair and non-discriminatory process”.
