From Substack
Accusations of pro-trans bias in the Morrison vs Belfast Film Festival tribunal
Jenny Holland
Nov 15, 2025
I attended Sara Morrison’s employment tribunal this week in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Morrison is taking her former employer, Belfast Film Festival, to court, alleging that they discriminated against her for her sex realist beliefs.
The tribunal, which began on Monday, became increasingly fiery as the week wore on, and culminated in Morrison’s legal team asking on Friday afternoon that all three members of the adjudicating panel step down, due to bias. The panel is made up of an employment judge, and two members not from the legal profession.
Naomi Cunningham, who is representing Morrison, filed an application for recusal for actual bias on the part of one of the panel members — Professor Deborah Boyd — and apparent bias on the part of the judge, Lisa Sturgeon, and the third member.
Judge Lisa Sturgeon rejected the application that the panel recuse itself, saying that there was no evidence she or the other panel member, Michael McKeown, were biased against Morrison— but that Professor Deborah Boyd would voluntarily stand down due to intense pain from fibromyalgia and a spinal problem.
Cunningham told the panel that on Friday morning they came into possession of information about Boyd, that had not been previously disclosed by Boyd. She said a member of the public had found old social media posts in which Boyd had posted about attending various Pride festivals, including one that included a photograph taken at London Pride, of a hand painted sign that read Fuck the DUP — a Northern Irish political party widely known to hold conservative social views. Boyd commented: “Best photo today so far” with a heart eyes emoji.
Cunningham also informed the panel that Boyd had been the director of a women’s group called Enterprising Women’s Network, for the counties Armagh and Down, between October 2004 and September 2005. The Enterprising Women’s Network is a part of the Women’s Regional Consortium, an umbrella group which has links to Women’s Resource and Development Agency (WRDA), according to documents provided by Morrison’s legal team. This is relevant because in her speech at the Let Women Speak rally, Morrison calls out the WRDA and three other women’s groups that she said were trying to intimidate and silence women from speaking out in favour of single-sex spaces.
A document entitled “Northern Ireland’s women’s manifesto” on the Women’s Regional Consortium’s website, in which WRDA is listed as a signatory, states: “we believe transgender women are women” and calls upon local elected officials to “provide accessible pathways to gender change for non-binary individuals and trans people under the age of 18,” and “develop meaningful strategies to tackle rising transphobic hate crime,” according to documents presented by Morrison’s legal team.
“Professor Boyd is very clearly aligned with Pride and LGBT,” Cunningham told the judge. She further contended that the other two members of the panel could have been influenced by Boyd’s pro-trans views in private discussions regarding the case.
Cunningham rejected claims by opposing counsel, Sean Doherty, who stated in his rebuttal that the application was merely a ruse on behalf of Morrison in order to “get another bite at the cherry.”
“The application is founded on the flimsiest evidence,” Doherty said, calling it “an outrageous attack on the integrity” of the panel.
A screenshot of the social media posts of employment tribunal panel member Deborah Boyd, which was presented as evidence of bias in the tribunal of Sara Morrison versus the Belfast Film Festival.
Cunningham, however, argued that lawyers are extremely reluctant to make a recusal application, because it incurs the risk that if rejected, the side that makes the application is likely to alienate the panel who will then be deciding the case.
“It is not something we would make lightly,” she said on Friday afternoon. “We had concerns [earlier in the week] but didn’t have enough material until this morning.”
Many of Morrison’s supporters shared those concerns, myself included. Friday’s drama was the culmination of a mood of increasing tension as Cunningham cross examined Devlin and Mark Cousins, a film maker who was at the time of Morrison’s LWS speech the chair of the BFF board, and a supporter of transgender ideology.
On Wednesday, I had noticed that Boyd was openly reacting Cunningham’s arguments as she was cross examining Devlin, Morrison’s former boss. Boyd was making faces that indicated hostility towards them. At one point, I saw her give pointed looks to Sean Doherty, the barrister representing the film festival. To me, the look seemed to be an attempt to get Doherty to respond to what Cunningham was saying. She also whispered something to Judge Sturgeon, and the panel then hastily took a break. This was at a point in Cunningham’s cross examination of Devlin when Cunningham used the term ‘trans identified man’ — a term that trans activists reject.
From that point on, it was clear to me that Boyd was not a neutral party, and was quite visibly supporting the film festival. I was not the only person in attendance who noticed her behaviour, as it was a topic of discussion during breaks in the tribunal proceedings with other members of the public who were also there to support Morrison. On Friday afternoon after the judge’s announcement that Boyd would step aside, Boyd looked at directly at Cunningham when the panel rose to leave, and mouthed the words ‘thank you’ at her in an exaggerated and sarcastic fashion.
Morrison, who is now the director of Genspect Ireland (and also, full disclosure, a friend of mine,) is claiming unfair dismissal and discrimination on the part of the BFF, which they deny. You can read her own account of the rally and its aftermath here. Broadly speaking, Morrison alleges that following the brief speech she gave at a 2023 Let Women Speak rally in favour of protecting single sex spaces for women and girls, members of the BFF board and its director, Michelle Devlin, attempted to walk Morrison into a trap that they could then use to fire her, due to their own pro-trans beliefs and the pro-trans beliefs of many others in local NGO’s and arts groups.
I was not at all surprised to see the evidence presented that the arts sector in Northern Ireland were all politically aligned on trans ideology — to the point that some of its most visible members would allegedly conspire to get rid of a once-valued employee over it.
The shabbiness of the legal proceedings has surprised me, however.
Boyd’s behaviour was shocking and extremely unprofessional. But worse still, it was somewhat echoed in a remark by BFF barrister Doherty, when Morrison’s lawyers introduced a new piece of evidence that they received late in proceedings — the mid-afternoon on Friday, after the application for recusal had been filed. It was photograph of handwritten notes taken on Wednesday by one of Morrison’s supporters in attendance, noting the episode that I had also noticed, when Boyd had whispered to the judge, precipitating a break in proceedings. (In her rejection of the application, the judge said the need for a sudden break was due to pain caused by Boyd’s fibromyalgia.) When asked if he objected to this being introduced into evidence, Doherty said “‘If the claimant wants to put lipstick on this pig of an application,” he would not object. Morrison supporters in the room audibly gasped at the crass language.
The tribunal will continue on Monday with the two remaining members. This is a positive outcome for Morrison and her team, as had the panelists all stepped down the whole trial would have been abandoned, and they would have had to start over again. And having brought to light the evidence of Boyd’s bias, all eyes will be on how the rest of tribunal is conducted.
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But it has definitely left me questioning both the impartiality and the professionalism of the employment tribunal. Sarcasm and cattiness from someone who will have a hand in determining the outcome are wholly unacceptable. Nor should someone who adjudicates disputes between employers and employees in a close-knit, post-conflict, society like Northern Ireland, be openly celebrating a hostile political message like ‘Fuck the DUP.’ How do people get appointed to these paid positions of authority that have huge consequences for the lives of workers here?
Overall, my impression from the tribunal is that Northern Irish society remains a place of of cozy, closed networks of power and influence that is hostile both to outsiders — Naomi Cunningham is a well-known English barrister who has successfully argued several high profile employment cases on behalf of sex realist women in England — and hostile to anyone who does not toe the line.
It’s good that Boyd stepped down, but it was an embarrassing showing for Northern Ireland.