A woman whose wrist was broken when she was beaten to the ground and battered by a swan in the Phoenix Park has failed in a £30,000 personal injuries action against the State.
The cob swan, which went on to attack her car, was a loner but not a rogue and may have been looking for a mate, Dublin Circuit Civil Court heard.
Ms Mary Ryan (71), from Castleknock, told Judge Kevin Haugh that after having fed the swan she heard a fluttering of wings behind her. "When I turned around I couldn't believe what I was seeing. He was coming for me. He knocked me to the ground," she said. "He continued to aggressively beat my legs and tried to peck me in the head." A motorist pumping a car horn appeared to frighten to swan for long enough to allow her to get to a car. "The swan followed me and started pecking at the car and beating at it with his wings," she added. There were no signs warning people as to the mischievous propensity and uncertain temperament of swans, she noted.
Retired park foreman Mr Michael Moore said the swan had become an attraction and was fed by members of the public. "I never knew him to be a rogue or vicious swan," he said - the bird was later captured and released in the Malahide Estuary."
Dr Richard Collins, an expert on swans, said they were passive birds known to attack only when their eggs or young were threatened. He never knew of a swan attacking unless under such extreme provocation.
While Judge Haugh accepted that swans were not given to menacing behaviour he was satisfied that this loner had been having a very bad day and had launched an attack on Mrs Ryan. "It may well be that Mrs Ryan had the bag, and the swan, like Oliver Twist, had come back looking for more and beat her to the ground."
The Park commissioners had not acquired a wild jungle beast and left it to roam in Phoenix Park, he accepted. The swan had flown on to their land and merely because they were pleased to see it there giving pleasure to many people, such as Mrs Ryan, did not mean they had assumed ownership and responsibility for its actions.