Kildare GAA have issued an apology.
In an interview with Miriam O’Callaghan on RTÉ Radio 1, Mayo woman Iseult Mangan spoke about a recent incident that occurred at St Conleth’s Park when she attempted to breastfeed her son.
As she prepared to feed her son, a steward interjected and said “you can’t do that here, you can do that in the toilets.” When she questioned the steward about this remark, Iseult said that: “he sort of stepped back in horror and I said ‘are you for real?!” and he didn’t engage me again.”
When she arrived at the stadium, Iseult said that most of the venue was empty and knowing that there was limited seating, she made her way to a free seat.
At this point, she was stopped by a steward to tell her that she couldn’t take any of the seats that she was intending to take. When she asked where she could sit to breastfeed her baby, the steward told her that she’d have to use the toilets.
In her own words: “We made the journey down to Mayo – which was a longer journey than most because we had to stop and feed the baby – but after reaching Kildare, I’d usually feed him straight away in the car before going into the stadium but he was fast asleep so I left him. I’ve fed him at other games at other stadiums before.”
At this point, the steward interjected and told her to go to the bathrooms to breastfeed.
After making another attempt to feed her child, Iseult was told that she couldn’t bring her buggy up to the tiered standing area. At this point, she burst into tears.
Thankfully, two kindly stewards went to help Iseult with her buggy. She said that a man in charge of the stewards apologised to her and said that this particular steward wouldn’t be working again.
Iseult reiterated that her “whole issue was being told to feed in the toilets” and that “I’ve never had anyone ever say anything to me before.”
Following the incident, Kildare GAA has issued an apology through the Independent. Iseult hasn’t spoken with Kildare GAA or anyone in management directly.
Here’s her conversation on RTÉ Radio 1 in full.
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