The evidence of a McDonald’s security guard who denied calling a man a “queer” and said he “didn’t know the meaning of that” has been ruled credible by a tribunal as it dismissed an equality claim by the customer.
The customer, Paul Cronin, was found by a Workplace Relations Commission Adjudicator (WRC) to have “completely initiated” an altercation with a security guard at the restaurant on 24th January 2025, when he said he was ejected from the premises.
The security guard, Alfred Edward, told an equality hearing last month that Cronin called him a “black monkey” during the row – an allegation the WRC made no specific ruling on in a decision just published.
The tribunal has rejected a complaint brought by Cronin against McDonald’s franchisee Aarval Ltd, alleging discrimination on the grounds of homosexuality – a claim denied by the business.
RM Block
Cronin, who identifies as gay, claimed last month that Edward threw him out of the restaurant because he was “prejudiced” and “completely biased” towards him.
He told the tribunal last month he was sitting in the restaurant having a coffee, and asked a female customer to lower her voice while speaking on the phone. The woman later gave him a “dirty look” and, when he made a phone call of his own, told him he was being “very loud”, he said.
He said he later went to the security man “to explain the interaction with the lady”.
“He wouldn’t discuss the matter. I found him quite dismissive. Because of this I asked him could I speak to a manager. He told me, abruptly, no, and it was at this point he called me a queer,” Cronin said.
Under cross-examination, he agreed with the restaurant operator’s solicitor, Robert Laffan, that he had emailed McDonald’s Ireland customer services two days on from the incident and made “no reference to discriminatory language”.
Asked how Edward could have known what his sexual identity was, Cronin said: “I think he would have known by my demeanour ... I think it’s reasonable by objective interpretation he would have assumed I was gay.”
Edward said in his evidence that he had no awareness of Cronin’s sexuality.
“What he called me was: ‘You black monkey’,” Edward said. He said Cronin took issue with his handling of the situation between the complainant and the female customer and had claimed the guard “sided with the lady”.
Laffan asked Edward whether he had called Cronin “a queer”.
“I don’t know even the meaning of that. I don’t call him such a name. I’m just hearing it for the first time in my life,” Edward said.
While cross-examining Edward, Cronin said: “You said there I called you a black monkey. Why on earth would I call you that, such a racist term?”
In his decision, Brady wrote that Cronin’s argument was that Edward should have known he was gay because he “came across as gay”.
He called this a “feeble suggestion”. The equality complaint was dismissed.
