Friday 10 January 2014

Scottish taxi driver accused of kicking out passengers who spoke Irish















Scottish taxi driver has been accused of kicking passengers out of his car after demanding that they stop speaking Irish.


A formal complaint has been lodged to Glasgow City Council after the man, who remains anonymous, allegedly told his Irish passengers to "stop speaking in that language" during a ride just before Christmas.

The Glasgow Evening Times reports that Donegal woman Kathleen McAleer, 21, was one of the four passengers in the car when the incident happened on Monday, December 16 at 2am.
The mental health nurse was travelling with a friend and two cousins, Joseph and Anthony Blair.
She said: "My cousins were just talking to each other in Irish, which is their first language.
"The taxi driver turned around and said to them: 'Stop speaking in that language'.
"We didn't really know how to take it. He said: 'When you are in Britain, it is English you speak.'
"I said to the driver 'Excuse me', shocked that somebody would say that to them."
"I said: 'That is out of order'.
"He then said: 'If they want to speak in that language they can get out of my taxi.'
"So we got out and said we wouldn't pay."
The Glasgow Evening Times also reports that the man's company, Hampden Cabs, refused to comment on the incident.
However, when asking an official from the firm about what happened, the spokesman reportedly insisted that it was related to another story whereby drunken passengers had intimidated an elderly driver.
But after being told by the paper that that was an entirely different incident, the paper reports that the spokesman said "I couldn't imagine four people coming over from Donegal and going to a party in Britain and not being drunk", before laughing.
An investigation is underway.

SOURCE-IRISH MIRROR

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