Do you think verbal taunts and Irish rebel songs constitute 'abuse' worth €20,000?

As a now retired Trade Union Offical who over the decades has had to deal with abuse cases in the workplace, let me say that comments/taunts that single out something special about a person, be it their religion,colour or nationality, can constitute abuse. Most of our rebel songs have a strong anti British/English flavour and if directed at an English person on a regular and forceful/loud way, would in my view, amout to abuse

Serves the company right for employing such idiots. Makes decent Irish men like myself and others feel ashamed. Would be interesting to quiz these Irish men and see exactly how much actual history the baboons know!

What have we come to as a nation?. If every Irish worker who was taunted while working in Britian during the 50's 60's 70' and 80's, took a racially motivated compensation claim, the British economy would be on it's knees. How quickly we have forgot our past, in these politically correct days. It proves the so called "celtic tiger" has done nothing but, widened the class divides.

Bloody English pansy, can't handle a few lads taking the p*ss - this namby pamby world of over sensitive muppets has to stop :) and trust a trade union offical to "feel for him" - missed an opertunity to ruin another workplace with a strike !! BTW - I'm Irish born to English parents

If it had been an Irishman who had been abused in the same manner then I'm sure the "yes" vote would have been in the 90% range- Racial abuse is exactly what it says on the tin!!

Such a silly question. Of course it is abuse. If the abuse was against the Irish as happened in England in the 50's and 60's everyone would say it was abuse but the Irish are good at giving abuse but not taking it.

I personally believe that the word "racial" shouldn't be associated with this story at all, and this association can only prove to cause more bad feeling. Perhaps I am wrong. Just to be clear: The term race or racial group usually refers to the concept of dividing humans into populations or groups on the basis of various sets of characteristics.[1] The most widely used human racial categories are based on visible traits (especially skin color, cranial or facial features and hair texture), and self-identification.[1][2] Conceptions of race, as well as specific ways of grouping races, vary by culture and over time, and are often controversial for scientific as well as social and political reasons. The controversy ultimately revolves around whether or not races are natural types or socially constructed, and the degree to which observed differences in ability and achievement, categorized on the basis of race, are a product of inherited (i.e. genetic) traits or environmental, social and cultural factors. Some argue that although race is a valid taxonomic concept in other species, it cannot be applied to humans.[3] Many scientists have argued that race definitions are imprecise, arbitrary, derived from custom, have many exceptions, have many gradations, and that the numbers of races delineated vary according to the culture making the racial distinctions; thus they reject the notion that any definition of race pertaining to humans can have taxonomic rigour and validity.[4] Today most scientists study human genotypic and phenotypic variation using concepts such as "population" and "clinal gradation". Many contend that while racial categorizations may be marked by phenotypic or genotypic traits, the idea of race itself, and actual divisions of persons into races, are social.

I think if anyone has to put up with that kind of treatment in their workplace they deserve some kind of compensation. Work for most of us is bad enough without having to put up with that kind of behaviour from your work "mates".