GAA Catfish: School agrees to temporarily stop disciplinary process against teacher

High Court reporters

A south Dublin school that initiated a disciplinary process against a teacher who claims she was wrongly identified as the so-called "GAA catfish" has given an undertaking in the High Court to temporarily halt the process.

Mr Justice Brian Cregan last week granted Niamh Farrell a short-term injunction restraining Coláiste Éanna from continuing the disciplinary process, which arises from allegations that she is the person responsible for “catfishing” various individuals in activities that were the subject of several podcasts by entertainment duo the 2 Johnnies.

Catfishing is the process of deceiving someone online using a fictional or assumed persona, often with the intent of luring them into a relationship.

The events were outlined in a series of hugely-popular episodes of the 2 Johnnies Podcast, centred around a woman who came to be known as the “GAA Catfish”, as many of the men who the woman allegedly communicated with were associated with GAA communities.

The woman was given the pseudonym of “Nikki” in the episodes.

On Wednesday, Conor Power SC for Ms Farrell and instructed by Daly Khurshid Solicitors, said that in lieu of the interim injunction, Coláiste Éanna was willing to make an undertaking in the same of the injunction – including that the school does not take any further steps in the disciplinary process until further order of the court.

Mr Power asked that the matter be put back for two weeks, to allow for the school to file sworn statements in response to his client’s affidavit.

Barra Faughnan BL, for the board of management of Coláiste Éanna and instructed by Mason Hayes and Curran, agreed that the school was making the undertaking.

He said he would endeavour to file the replying documents within two weeks.

Mr Justice Cregan made the order replacing the injunction with the school’s undertaking. He adjourned the case for two weeks.

Arising from her identification and allegations made against her, Ms Farrell, from The Spires, Portadown, Co Armagh, faces a disciplinary process initiated by Coláiste Éanna, an all-boys secondary school on Ballyroan Road, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16, where she has worked as a music teacher since 2019.

In a sworn statement to the court, Ms Farrell said she was concerned the school was relying on a “completely flawed and unlawful” disciplinary process in an effort to dismiss her because of “the public attention that focused on the school and pressure from some parents”.

Podcasts published by the 2 Johnnies in 2022 described the alleged activities of an individual who created fictitious social media profiles to communicate with others, often men, many of whom were involved in the GAA community.

The podcasters published a follow-up episode on the subject in January. The podcasts did not name the individual alleged to have carried out the catfishing activities.

Ms Farrell says that in 2022, she became aware of her false identification online as the alleged catfish by people unknown to her.

Earlier this month, Ms Farrell said, she was informed of an investigation report prepared by Coláiste Éanna’s principal for a disciplinary process.

The report refers to the alleged activities of the “GAA catfish” and, Ms Farrell said, “seems to consider that I have itted to being that person”.

Ms Farrell said she has always denied she is the person behind the “GAA catfish”, including to the principal of the school.