Actress Rynagh O'Grady, who featured in the Father Ted series, was yesterday awarded over €20,000 in damages arising from an injury she received when she tripped in the Irish Life car-park in Dublin.
In the Circuit Civil Court in Dublin Mr Eugene Gleeson, counsel for Ms O'Grady, said she had played the part of Mary O'Leary in Father Ted and had important parts in the films Night Train and Widow's Peak.
He said she had lost $6,000 as a result of having to give up a part in a film and €1,000 which she had prepaid on a holiday to Italy and which she could not take due to her injury.
The actress told Judge Elizabeth Dunne that a woman who saw her writhing on the footpath in pain and "whining for up to 10 minutes" actually seemed scared of her, shrugged her shoulders and walked away.
A motorist, leaving the car-park where she had fallen, passed by as she lay on the footpath and ignored her plight.
No one in the car-park seemed to know of her fall, despite it having taken place only yards from and within sight of the pay desk.
Ms O'Grady (51), of Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, was awarded more than €20,000 damages against Irish Life and Permanent, owner of the Irish Life Centre car-park, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin, where she broke her ankle on an uneven water grating.
Ms O'Grady said she was walking along a narrow footpath in the car-park to retrieve her car when she put her foot on the grating. It was uneven and turned her ankle.