Irish Paralympic cyclist, Martin Gordon, has spoken of his "humiliation" at being refused entry to a restaurant in Dublin because he was using a guide dog. He said he was with his wife and child at the time and was angry he had to lie to his daughter to protect her from the truth of what had happened.
While Martin, who works as a barrister, told the restaurant staff it was a breach of the Equal Status Act to refuse him entry to the indoor seated area because he was using a guide dog, he was told it was the restaurant policy not to allow access to the indoor seated area to people with dogs.
"Twenty years using a guide dog and the same problems faced by people with disabilities persist," he said. "I was refused entry to a Dublin city restaurant on Saturday. The worst part of this humiliating experience was having to lie to my small child about why we couldn’t go in.
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"I’m not going to name the restaurant quite yet only because I do not want to prejudice a formal process I intend to pursue, all in good time," he said, adding the incident was at the "sharp end of most negative experiences I have ever had.
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“Sadly, it’s no better than 20 years ago, at that time I would have said people were unaware but today people feel more ‘what are you going to do about it? I said 'you are in breach of the law' and they said this is our policy, it was absolutely brazen and in front of my daughter who I am trying to protect from the less savoury elements of the world for as long as I can."
Martin, who competed on the tandem at Tokyo 2020 with Eamon Byrne as pilot, lost his sight overnight when he was aged 17 years during a trip to London. His loss of sight was an unexpected complication related to glaucoma, though he has since pursued a successful career as a barrister and competed internationally for Ireland.
“I was a very active 17-year-old, of course, swinging golf clubs every weekend or throwing the rugby ball, that kind of thing," Gordon told stickybottle in an extended interview before the Paralympics. "So there was always sport. How did I cope with it? I coped with it day by day. It wasn’t just a case of ‘this is a bummer’. It was a sink or swim situation. But I was extremely fortunate with the people around me.
“I had a wonderful set of parents. Their strength was incredible; for what they went through as parents at the time. My friends didn’t abandon me when things went wrong. They rallied around me and some of my mates rallied around my parents, and their parents rallied around my parents.”
