Mum says she was ‘ordered off’ Dublin Bus because her baby was crying

A mum has told how she was left "mortified" after she was told to get off a Dublin Bus because her baby was crying.

The Dublin-based mum was travelling home with her 20-month-old daughter on Tuesday night when the alleged incident occurred. The pair boarded a Dublin Bus travelling from Dorset Street towards Finglas after the little girl was picked up from crèche. The toddler became “quite unsettled” during the journey and, despite her best efforts, her mum was unable to calm the little girl. She alleges that this is when the driver stopped the bus and refused to moved, saying he couldn’t concentrate with the crying. Speaking to RTE Radio One’s Liveline, she said:

“As you can imagine a 20 month old is quite difficult to manage. “The bus then came to a complete stop and the driver then opened the doors and he looked around at me and he said he couldn’t take any more of the baby crying. “I just thought he was joking and I think everyone else thought he was joking too. “People were looking at me kind of smiling and thinking, oh he must be having a laugh.”

The driver allegedly continued to insist she and her daughter leave the bus, even though she explained that her journey wasn't much longer. She claims that the driver refused to give her his name but that she took down the reference number for the bus. The mum said she was left “mortified” by the incident, and got off the bus with her daughter. She continued:

“I was completely mortified as you can imagine, you always feel as if all eyes are on you. “He was refusing to move, he wasn’t moving from the bus stop. “And she was still screaming so my first thing was to try and calm her down so I had to get off the bus.”

HerFamily reached out to Dublin Bus for comment.