Thanks fi and potty and craggy. I'm not overly gutted that I won't be moving to NC: the change would have been really fun for a while, but there would have been problems - my visa, moving the cats, my work prospects, etc.
It's the personal disppointment for David that is so crappy, because it's turned into such a pattern. I remember ranting on here when he got rejected after his previous interview - at his alma mater, the famous university in Dublin - in favour of someone with one article and demonstrably less knowlege and experience and everything else, who'd only just finished his DPhil. It was crap and he is still in formal negotiations with them about an official complaint.
Now history has repeated itself, because again the other two candidates were demonstrably junior to him (even the one who is older than him is much more junior career-wise). He has had the feedback, which was that he performed 'magnificently' and was the favourite candidate of a large proportion of staff, including the Departmental Chair. But one head was obviously against him (D noticed that this guy was making no attempt to engage with him at interview or at the dinners, and didn't even ask him any questions at any point. He just didn't want to know). It is unfortunate that D's ex-girlfriend, who is a *ahem* very difficult person *ahem* currently works there and would have had a lot to say about why no-one should give him a job.
The whole thing seems, like with Dublin, both poisonously political, deeply unfair, and objectively iffy. So, another formal complaint will have to be launched, if only to find out what actually happened.
Edit: I realise talk of complaints might make us seem uppity and entitled: we're not like that at all. If he loses fairly to similarly qualified or better qualified candidates that is totally fine and correct and would be a result he could be happy with. But when a job asks for one thing and then hires much less qualified candidates, we feel it's important to question these things.