Judge would be ‘serving womankind’ by getting rid of high heels

A High Court judge has said he might be "serving womankind" if he could stop people wearing high heel shoes.

Mr Justice Michael Hanna was speaking during a case in which a woman sued Dublin City Council after breaking her ankle in a fall she claimed was caused by a piece of broken pavement outside a nightclub.

The Council denied liability for the incident, which took place on May 17th, 2009.

Alison Boylan (35), a homemaker and mother-of-five from Saggart Lakes, Saggart, Co Dublin, had been wearing high heeled shoes which she had bought earlier that day.

When the shoes were shown to the judge, he said: “I think I might serve womankind if I could stop people wearing those shoes, but that is not my function.”

Following talks between the parties, the judge was told by Conor Maguire SC, for Ms Boylan, the case had been settled and could be struck out.

No terms were disclosed.

The judge congratulated the parties on reaching agreement before commenting: “You have relieved me from having to make a major fashion statement.”

In her action, Ms Boylan said she went out with her husband for the evening on May 17th, 2009, and had just come out of Buck Whaley’s Piano Bar on Leeson Street, Dublin, when she tripped and fell down on her knees and hands.

She said when she looked around there was a piece of the kerb missing.

The Council denied liability and pleaded she was intoxicated to such an extent she was unable to exercise proper control of herself.

Ms Boylan said she had only had three drinks that evening and they had left the Piano Bar to go home because it got crowded.

She went home thinking her ankle was merely sprained but by morning she was in “unbelievable” pain and had to go to hospital where she was put in a cast.

She said she had to use a wheelchair for four weeks after the accident.

She still has some pain from the injury and has to take painkillers if she expects to spend a lot of time on her feet, she said.