The wife of a top Irish lawyer has given birth on the pavement in New York.

Polly McCourt, whose husband Cian is a partner at A&L Goodbody, went into labour in the family's apartment. "I was starting to feel worse and worse," she told reporters, "and I thought, ‘Oh, this is not good’”. After hurrying outside to hail a taxi to the hospital, her waters broke. Mrs McCourt asked a doorman to help her sit down on the corner of East 68th Street and 3rd Avenue, where she gave birth. The arrival of seven pound six ounce Ila was witnessed by a crowd of pedestrians and, because that isn't public enough, a Fox TV crew who happened to be passing.

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Cian McCourt arrived three minutes after his daughter popped onto the sidewalk, having got stuck in a traffic jam. He said he "feared the worst” when he saw the crowd, but found his wife and Ila in good health. Pedestrians even fulfilled hot towel duties by handing over their jumpers. In gratitude, the couple have given Ila the middle name Isabelle after a stranger who donated her coat (and who luckily wasn't called Grunwalda).

Thanks to Fox, the McCourts have a filmed record of the event. Although it is interrupted by pedestrians telling the camera, "Miracle on 3rd avenue!" and "She was like 'oh my God the baby's coming' and then I could see the baby's head coming out".
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