A teenage girl has settled an action against the GAA for €50,000 after a goalpost fell on her head.

Jessica Fidgeon Cush was just 11 when she was injured during a football match, the High Court heard.

Yesterday, she settled her action for damages against the GAA for €50,000.

Ms Cush, of Orlynn Park, Lusk, Co Dublin, was 11 years old when the accident happened on October 21, 2006, as she played on a pitch at Starlights GAA Club, Collinstown, in north Dublin.

Ms Cush told the court when the goalpost hit her on the head, she did not know what had happened. She said after the accident she took a break from Gaelic football and played soccer instead in a midfield position.

"I moved out of goals. I did not want to tempt fate," she told Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns.

Earlier her counsel, Richard Keane, said Ms Cush had been knocked to the ground when she was hit by the goalpost.

She suffered a significant trauma and it was later discovered she had suffered a neck injury.

She also suffered nightmares and flashbacks after the accident and also headaches.

She sued, through her father Philip, the GAA, which was responsible for Starlights GAA Club.

 

Shocked

It was claimed the goalpost had been allowed to be or to remain in a dangerous and unsafe condition and that there was an alleged failure to carry out any appropriate inspection of it.

It was also claimed there was a failure to ensure the goalpost was adequately secured.

Ms Cush, it was stated, was extremely shocked and shaken and sustained an injury to her neck and had to wear a neck collar.

She also had a clicking sensation in her neck for some time afterwards.

It was further claimed that Ms Cush had a fear of dying after the event and sustained post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the accident.

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