The former principal of a Co Donegal national school who claimed he was unfairly dismissed failed yesterday to get a High Court order restoring him to the teaching staff pending the outcome of court action. Mr James Boyle, of Main Street, Dungloe is suing the Bishop of Raphoe and a school manager.
He claimed that in 1994 he was given the choice, by the then bishop of Raphoe, of either resigning or being dismissed. This followed several inquiries after parents had boycotted St Mary's national school, Ardara.
Mr Boyle claimed his resignation was tantamount to unfair dismissal, but lost an appeal to the Employment Appeals Tribunal. His Circuit Court appeal against the tribunal's decision will be heard next month.
At the High Court yesterday Mr Des Murphy, for Mr Boyle, told Mr Justice McCracken that there was a boycott of St Mary's school in 1993-94 following objections by parents to Mr Boyle's conduct. The objections ranged from trivial to very serious complaints, he said. Mr Boyle was suspended on full pay between 1994 and 1996.
There were several inquiries, some of which did not get off the ground. At the last inquiry Monsignor Daniel McDyer, as manager of the school, had recommended Mr Boyle's dismissal. The Bishop of Raphoe, Dr Philip Boyce, had said that if Mr Boyle did not resign he would be fired. He chose to resign.
Mr Murphy argued that the fact that Mr Boyle had brought his unfair dismissal claim before the tribunal did not prevent him from bringing a High Court application on the grounds that he was unlawfully and wrongfully dismissed and was entitled to an injunction against the Bishop and Mgr McDyer.
Mr Murphy added that there had been a bitter dispute about the evidence before the tribunal and Mr Boyle was alleging he was the victim of a conspiracy.
Mr Roddy Horan, for the Bishop and Mgr McDyer, said Mr Boyle had worked for the school board of management and thereafter worked for Mgr McDyer. Mr Boyle had accepted there was an employment relationship and accepted Mgr McDyer's powers as an employer.
While the national school rules might have some efficacy, they were not statutory rules or regulations. Mgr McDyer might have breached the rules but the legal reality was that there was a contract of employment between the parties.
Mr Justice McCracken said he was refusing Mr Boyle's application on the grounds that he had chosen to pursue a remedy through the tribunal and was still pursuing it, and was seeking to have the tribunal's decision set aside by the Circuit Court.
Having taken that course, the judge did not think that Mr Boyle could seek an interlocutory injunction so that he could be taken back by the school, pending the hearing of his action. The judge added that he was not holding that Mr Boyle could not run his action on the basis that he was wrongly dismissed.