Girl injured at Dublin GAA match awarded €30,000

A 17-year-old student, who impaled her right leg on sharp metal railings when she attended a GAA football match, has been awarded €30,000 damages in the Circuit Civil Court.

Barrister Esther Earley told the court Aoife Dillon was 15 in February 2013, and was a spectator at St Monica's GAA Club, in Millwood Park, Raheny, Dublin, when the incident occurred.

Aoife had gone to retrieve a ball which had been kicked out of play when she fell over disused railings which had been left protruding close to the football pitch.

Ms Earley told Judge Pauline Codd that Aoife fell heavily on the railings, lacerating her right thigh.

The court heard Aoife was taken to Beaumont Hospital, in Dublin, where her wound was sutured. It needed to be stitched again after a couple of weeks.

Counsel told the judge the wound had healed within several weeks but it had left a visible permanent one-inch long scar.

Through her mother Anne Dillon, of Tonlegee Avenue, Raheny, Aoife sued Dublin City Council, owner of the football pitch, for negligence.

Ms Earley told the judge a settlement offer of €30,000 had been made.

Judge Codd, hearing that Aoife was very conscious of her scar, approved the offer.