Two Traveller couples have been awarded £5,000 compensation in the first race discrimination case in the North on access to services. A county court judge in Newry, Co Down, ruled that they had been subject to unlawful direct racial discrimination by staff in the Olive Grove public house in the town.
The court also issued an injunction restraining the owners of the premises from further acts of racial discrimination. The Travellers were refused service in April. In her judgment, Judge Brownlie said they would have been served but for the fact they were members of the Traveller community.