Eileen Flynn

Eileen Flynn (1955 – 9 September 2008) (married name Eileen Roche) was a schoolteacher in County Wexford, Ireland, who was dismissed in 1982 for cohabiting with a married man. In 1985, the High Court ruled this did not constitute unfair dismissal.

Flynn was raised a Roman Catholic, and graduated from University College, Galway. She began teaching Irish and history in 1978 at the Holy Faith Convent in New Ross, a girls' Catholic school run by the Sisters of the Holy Faith. In 1980–81, she began a relationship with Richie Roche, a separated father of three who ran a pub in the town.Divorce was illegal in Ireland at the time. The school principal warned her that parents had complained of the scandal and that she would be sacked if she continued; Flynn maintained that her private life was not the school's business. In November 1981 Flynn moved into Roche's house and in April 1982 announced her pregnancy to the new principal, Sister Mary Anna Power, who offered to arrange for her to give birth in London and put the child up for adoption. The same month the school manager said that she would be dismissed unless she changed her "lifestyle". Flynn gave birth in Ireland on 6 June 1982 and determined to raise the child with Roche. On 6 August, the manager said that because of her "open rejection of the norms and behaviour and the ideals which [the] school exists to promote" she must resign or be dismissed. She refused to resign and was dismissed on 22 August with effect from 20 November.

On 29 August 1982, Flynn told the principal she had contacted a solicitor and would contest the dismissal. In March 1983, she took her case to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, alleging unfair dismissal under the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977, which prohibits pregnancy discrimination. In February 1984, the tribunal rejected her appeal. She appealed to the Circuit Court, where two parents of students testified at having made written complaints about Flynn to the school. Judge Noel Ryan upheld the tribunal verdict, commenting that the nuns had been too lenient with Flynn. On 8 March 1985 in the High Court, Declan Costello upheld Ryan's verdict, on the basis that her dismissal was not due to her pregnancy per se but rather to her non-marital relationship. Flynn could not afford an appeal to the Supreme Court.

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