It's not easy being tall. The jokes are only the start of it: even findingclothes is tricky. One club is fighting back, writes Alison Healy.
It will be easy to spot members of the Tall Persons Club when they hit the tourist trail in Dublin this weekend. The British and Irish club doesn't have a minimum-height requirement, but most of its members are well above six feet tall, with some of the men topping seven feet.
Its highest-achieving member must be Chris Greener, Europe's tallest man, who is a fraction over seven feet, six inches and wears size 17 shoes.
The Tall Persons Club - which naturally plans to visit Johnnie Fox's, the country's highest pub, during its Easter visit to Ireland - was founded in 1991, after Phil Heinricy did a radio interview about being tall and was inundated with calls about it.
Although the club has more than 1,000 members, its Irish branch is still in its early stages, with about 40 members. When they step out in Dublin this weekend, they will walk tall and be proud of it, says Lorna Conroy, the six feet, three inch Irish co-ordinator.
"There's nothing nicer than walking down a street with a group of people all your own height and not getting the usual jibes," she says.
People think they are being hilarious when they ask a tall person "what the weather is like up there", but "tallies" have heard all the jokes. In fact, the club provides a list of replies to some of the more annoying jibes. It suggests, for example, that if a tall man is asked if he plays basketball, he should say: "No, do you play miniature golf?"
"You just get fed up of the jibes eventually," Conroy says. She believes the club is especially helpful for self-conscious teenagers and children. "You just want to conform and be the same as everyone else, and there you are, shooting up in height." She stopped growing at the age of 12, having found it very hard when she began to tower over fellow students and, then, her teachers.
Tall children get bullied, she says, and also have to deal with teachers who assume their height means they are older and more mature than they really are. Conroy used to slouch in the hope that she wouldn't be noticed. "But within half an hour of meeting people in the club, you straighten up and feel more confident."
Conroy, who is from Glasgow, met her husband, Dave, who is almost seven feet tall, through the club. Although it's not a dating service, many romances have flourished during its social events.
"Going out with someone tall is easier," says Conroy, one of whose former boyfriends was only five feet seven and refused to walk beside her in public. "And if I wore high heels, he'd have a temper tantrum."
When Lorna and Dave arrived at their priest's house in their Opel Corsa, to organise their wedding, he couldn't stop laughing. "He said: 'How did the two of you get out of that? Look at the size of it!' "
Dave is a long-distance lorry driver. He had to have the bunk in his cab adjusted to accommodate his height. In an eerie encounter, he was once approached in Eason's by an undertaker curious to know his measurements.
Height runs in the family. When Dave's six feet six uncle went to hospital, the ambulance personnel had a problem shutting the ambulance door. In the hospital, a second bed was put at the end of his bed to support his legs.
The Conroys had their seven-by-six-feet-six bed custom-made, but they had trouble getting it into the house. Then they couldn't find linen for it and had to look abroad.
The club provides a suppliers' directory, covering areas such as shoes, furniture and cars. Garden implements and buggies have to be higher than usual to prevent back strain.
The club also provides medical information and recommends the Alexander technique for good posture.
A common gripe on the club's website discussion board is the lack of legroom on aircraft. Many tall people check in early, to get the emergency-exit seats, but they don't always succeed.
Tall people have learned to think ahead. When Conroy was booking last night's bowling trip for the group, she had to ensure that size-14 shoes were available for some of the members.
The group had hoped to take the Viking Splash tour, "but we heard it would be a bit of a squash with the legroom".
When booking holidays, they ask if the beds have footboards and frown on fixed shower heads, which are too low.
But clothing is the biggest issue for tallies. Conroy shops at Ulla Popken, in Liffey Valley Shopping Centre, and places such as Dorothy Perkins, which have ranges for tall people.
Heather David Footwear in central Dublin specialises in large shoes; Mr Big in Goatstown, Dublin, and Clarkes of Enniskillen are among the shops that sell outsize menswear.
And Cinderella Shoes in Tullamore brings a mobile shop around the country a few times a year.
People who are five feet nine have told Conroy that they have problems because of their height. "I'm looking at them and thinking, you think you're tall?"
You can contact the Tall Persons Club at the Central Hotel in Dublin this weekend. Its website is www.tallclub.co.uk