‘I was asked not to breastfeed at game’
Mother tells of ‘horror’ over incident at GAA match
A MOTHER has said she was left ‘horrified’ when she was told by a steward at a GAA match that she could not breastfeed her baby in the ground and to use the toilet to feed him.
Mayo fan Iseult Mangan arrived early at last Saturday’s game with Kildare so she could breastfeed her baby son Senan at Conleth’s Park in Newbridge before a large crowd arrived.
The match was originally scheduled for Croke Park but was later moved to Newbridge after protests by Kildare.
The mother of four said a steward at the venue told her she could not sit in the stand as those seats were reserved, but that she could use the toilets to breastfeed her five-month-old son.
Ms Mangan, speaking to RTÉ’s Today With Miriam O’Callaghan radio show, said: ‘I would usually feed him before a game, but he was fast asleep so I left him and said I would feed him in there, which I have done in other GAA grounds... We were there a few minutes past 5pm and there were only about 200 people there.
‘I had been in the stadium before so I knew there was limited seating, but it was 60% empty at this stage so I decided to sit on one of those seats as it was an unreserved seating event, so anyone should have been entitled to a seat bar VIPs or sponsors. I went up to a seat and security said “you can’t sit on the seat”. I said fair enough but asked why not and I was told they were reserved. I asked if there were any other seats I could sit on as I need to sit down to feed my baby as I am breastfeeding. He said to me there wasn’t and I couldn’t do that here, you can do that in the toilets.’ She said that she stepped back ‘in horror’ and asked: ‘Are you for real?’ She added that ‘he just looked over my shoulder and didn’t engage with me again’.
Ms Mangan said another steward came to her aid as she struggled to get her buggy to the tiered steps in the stadium where she hoped to breastfeed her baby.
She said she burst into tears when he told her she couldn’t bring her buggy that way, but that he couldn’t have been nicer when she explained to him she was trying to find somewhere to sit down to breastfeed her son.
She said: ‘I explained what had happened and he was pretty disgusted and called a female steward over to help – and they helped me bring the buggy to the stands where I could go.
‘This lovely steward came back to me twice before the game to make sure I was alright.’
Ms Mangan said the steward who helped her apologised for what had happened. It is understood Kildare GAA has said it is sorry for the incident – but Ms Mangan said it has not apologised to her personally.
The Irish Daily Mail contacted Kildare GAA yesterday but it did not respond to the request for a comment.