A football fan who fell and injured herself in the GAA's £36 million Cusack Stand has lost a compensation claim for up to £30,000 damages against Cumann Luth
chleas Gael. Ms Eileen Fay (43), of Lisnastrain Court, Coalisland, Co Tyrone, told the Circuit Civil Court she fractured a rib and injured her left foot and back when she fell down three steps during the Tyrone-Meath all-Ireland semi-final in August 1996.
In the first alleged negligence claim involving the stand since it opened in 1995, Judge Liam Devally said that on her own evidence she could not succeed in her claim.
He told Mr Sean O Siothchain, for the GAA, that Ms Fay's initial evidence had been that she had slipped on the top step and fallen down three others on her back. Later in cross-examination she had used the words "stumbled" and "lost my footing".
"She made no claim that there was any material on the top step that might have caused her to slip or anything else that might have adversely effected her," Judge Devally said. While Ms Fay had suffered an injury he could not find Cumann Luthchleas Gael guilty of negligence or in breach of contract or statutory duty.
