The Irish Times reports today that an Ig Nobel Prize played a peripheral role in a ruling by the High Court:
UCC lecturer has sanctions quashed
A lecturer at University College Cork has won a High Court order quashing sanctions imposed on him following an inquiry into sexual harassment allegations made by a female colleague to whom he had shown a paper on the sex life of fruit bats….
In his judgment, Mr Justice Kearns noted the scientific article complained of, dealing with experiments undertaken in China, was a very technical document, written in very small print with nothing or a lurid or graphic nature or anything photographic. The article was awarded an “Ig Nobel” award for papers which may have humorous content as well as serious scientific material and that was the case here, the judge noted.
BONUS: An Irish Times report the next day, with a photo of the lecturer, and a report in The Independent.