Smyths Toys to give boy who suffered head injury €30,000

A 13-year-old schoolboy will have to wait for five years before a very special €30,000 “present” is dropped into his Christmas stocking.

Judge John O'Connor heard in the Circuit Civil Court that Smyths Toys, the leading retailer of children's birthday and Christmas presents, had agreed to give Declan Maguire the €30,000 compensation for an injury he suffered in the company's Blanchardstown Store.

Barrister Patrick O'Brien, counsel for Declan, of Rossan Court, Waterville, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, told the judge that the boy was examining, with his mother Margaret Maguire, what Santa might bring him on Christmas 2015.

“While they were in the store at Blanchardstown Shopping Centre another child, not connected with Declan or his mum, accidentally dislodged a metal scooter from an overhead shelf and it struck Declan on the head,” Mr O’Brien said.

Mr O’Brien, who appeared for Declan and his mum with Rory Quigley Solicitors, told the court the boy was only eight at the time and had to be taken to Temple Street children’s hospital where a head wound had to be glued by staff in the emergency department before they discharged him and gave him painkillers.

The judge heard Declan had afterwards suffered with headaches and post-traumatic migraines and it had been stated in a 2018 medical report that he had also suffered post-traumatic stress disorder.

“The teenager has made a full recovery and has been left with quite a small scar on his forehead,” Mr O’Brien said.

The judge, who was told that Smyths Toys, which has its registered head office in Galway, had made a settlement offer of €30,000 which the boy’s legal team was recommending to the court.

The judge, approving what he described as a very good settlement, directed that the money be paid into court until Declan is 18 on November 11th, 2025 – a little more than six weeks before Christmas of that year.