It was in the early 1930s that May Donoghue secured a lasting place within the annals of the law, after what became known as the ‘snail in the bottle’ legal case. This saw her take Stevensons, a maker of ginger beer, to court after finding a very unappealing dead snail languishing inside one of its bottles in Paisley.
Despite a distinct lack of press sympathy for her cause and her poverty stricken circumstances, Donoghue was undaunted and went on to win the case. This led to the negligence laws being changed around the world.
The statue in memory of her will be situated at Ferguslie Park, outside the Tannahill Centre, and unveiled during May this year. Mandy McIntosh, a local artist, is creating the statue and she told the Gazette that:
“There are so few women commemorated in this way that it’s great to help redress the balance a bit. When I first started work on the project my focus was on the snail, but then I realised that actually it’s all about May and what she represents.”
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