Astronomy Ireland founder ‘pocketed’ speaking money, former manager alleges

Astronomy Ireland founder David Moore was in the practice of “pocketing” money for speaking engagements that was meant to be the “main revenue stream” for the science organisation, a former manager has alleged.

Mr Moore, who is well-known for his press and media appearances on astronomy, claimed on Friday that the society had been “libelled” before the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), branding accusations of money going astray and financial irregularities as “false”.

The manager, Sonya Martin, has told the employment tribunal she felt she had no choice other than to resign in the wake of a “heated” meeting when Mr Moore said the club had no board – a position she believed made her “party to a fraud on the State”, as she had applied for grants on the basis that it did.

The WRC is to consider whether all of Astronomy Ireland’s subscribing members are to be held answerable for Ms Martin’s complaints after Mr Moore said the legal status of the club was “iffy in law” as an “unincorporated society” without trustees.

Ms Martin was hired initially by Astronomy Ireland as an administrator in 2021, promoted to manager in March 2022, and resigned in July 2023, the tribunal was told. She has brought complaints under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 and the Sick Leave Act 2022 against her former employer.

Astronomy Ireland’s website was hacked shortly before its main annual fundraiser in August 2022, she said. Ms Martin said she wanted to report the hack to gardaí because she and the other employee had data protection concerns, but was “told not to” by Mr Moore.

Mr Moore denied there had been any personal data stored on the website.

Ms Martin said that Ms Doyle came to her and said she had identified an issue with people asking Astronomy Ireland to provide a speaker for paid engagements.

“David was taking the money and pocketing it as his own income, as opposed to it going back into the society,” she said. The speaker fees were Astronomy Ireland’s “main revenue stream”, she said. “We were fobbed off,” she added.

“It was quite the thing realising there’s quite a lot of money that should have gone into the organisation that wasn’t going in over a number of years. We actually sought legal advice on the matter from the Charities Regulator at the time when I was still in the office,” she said.

Ms Martin said that when she asked Mr Moore about the status of the club’s board, Mr Moore replied: “There is no board. There is David Moore, and his advisers.”

Ms Martin said she was “horrified”, because she had applied for State grants on behalf of Astronomy Ireland which required the governance of a board of directors. She said she replied: “This is fraud, we have to have a board.”

Having indicated an intention to resign to Ms T, a volunteer who appeared at the hearing but was granted anonymity, following the meeting, Ms Martin resigned formally the following year after a period of sick leave, Ms Martin’s barrister, Alan Crann BL, said.

In a submission to the tribunal, Mr Moore said the club was registered as an employer with the Revenue Commissioners and said the taxing authority was “quite happy” with the arrangement. He said the limited company had been set up to “protect” the Astronomy Ireland identity and “own the name”.

He told the tribunal that when the organisation got a “big grant” from the former State training agency FÁS in the 1990s the agency had told them their arrangements were “fine”.

“So, it’s legal enough for half a million pounds worth of public money,” Mr Moore said.

“It is complicated, it’s iffy in law perhaps – I don’t really know, we’re a bunch of volunteers,” he said. He said the club was established as “an unincorporated society, to the best of my knowledge”.

Adjudicator Jim Dolan said he would have to examine who was answerable to the statutory claims.

“These complaints are against Astronomy Ireland, but what’s Astronomy Ireland – an unincorporated entity? Maybe the correct respondents are every single member,” he said.

Mr Dolan said he would have to adjourn, and said he was going to write to Astronomy Ireland’s treasurer, accountant Willie McDonagh, summoning him to appear and give evidence.

He said he expected that the WRC would reschedule the case for a date in September, to be confirmed in due course.

Mr Moore then spoke up and said: “Can I say something for the purposes of the press here? There have been a number of accusations; they are all false. There’s no money going astray, no financial irregularities,” he said. He added that there was “no personal data” kept on the Astronomy Ireland website.

Mr Crann said: “Mr Moore, the hearing’s been adjourned.”

“We’ve been libelled, in my opinion,” Mr Moore said.