Threats, lies and fake documents.. Ireland’s illegal adoption shame
RTE probe uncovers more shocking treatment of mothers and children
THREATENING letters, fake documents and insensitive meetings are just some of the shocking discoveries from a probe into Ireland’s illegal adoptions.
In January, the Mother and Baby Homes report was finally published and detailed the harsh treatment of unmarried women and their children at 18 institutions across the country.
The 4,000-page document details the failings of the State in relation to the homes but does little to discuss the 126 illegally-adopted babies.
Dublin woman Susan Kiernan learned as a child she was adopted and, after spending years attempting to hunt down her birth mother, she received a letter from Tusla in 2018.
She was told she was one of the babies who were illegally adopted and, while she managed to sneak copies of some of her paperwork during the meeting, she was later provided with redacted records when she went through official channels.
Among the documents seen in the RTE Investigates programme was a demand for £85, the fee St Patrick’s Guild charged pregnant women to care for their babies until adopted – the equivalent of more than €3,200 in today’s money.
But when Susan’s birth mum didn’t pay her fee, the Sisters of Charity went in pursuit and, two months on, they threatened to send the child back to her.
The documents show that a year on Susan’s birth mother was still struggling to pay the nuns and they began phoning Arnotts, where she worked as a shop assistant.
They said: “If you do not send, my collector will call to see you. She would prefer not to have to do this as it might be embarrassing for you and we want to safeguard your reputation. We have not failed you; you have failed us”.
But these were nothing more than idle threats because Susan could not have been returned – due to the fact she had been placed with her adoptive parents at just four days old.
And some powerful people were involved in the cover-ups, including the son of a President
If you do not send, my collector will call to see you
No one is above the law, who does this person think that he is? It is incredible BRENDA LYNCH ON THE ROLE OF EAMON DE VALERA JNR
of Ireland, Professor Eamon de Valera Jnr, who worked at Holles Street National Maternity Hospital. He arranged antenatal appointments for a woman who was not pregnant to facilitate an illegal adoption.
This was almost a decade after the Adoption Act 1952 came into force.
Brenda and Brian Lynch were two of four children illegally adopted into the one house over five-and-a-half years.
The adoptions were facilitated by Mr de Valera Jnr and they were concealed as fake pregnancies.
Brian’s mum went to St Brendan’s Nursing Home, Dublin, on her pretend due date but she emerged with him, the child of an unmarried mother.
Fearing her children would face the stigma of adoption, their adoptive mother never told them the truth.
Brenda said: “No one is above the law, who does this person think that he is? That he can just decide that, ‘Oh yeah here is a baby, we will take her from her and give her to a good family, middle class’. It is incredible.”
Tusla said it has “identified a small number of cases where meetings have taken place in venues that would fall outside our own guidance and best practice.” It intends to engage with these people again and “apologise directly to them”.
RTE Investigates: Ireland’s Illegal Adoptions airs tonight at 9.35pm on RTE One and RTE Player (worldwide).
It’s a 4-hour journey to the bottom.. it was a descent into darkness RICHARD GARRIOTT EXPLORER
HISTORY-MAKING explorer Richard Garriott described how he dived to the remotest place on the planet – then took the world’s deepest selfie while down there.
When he gently landed at the foot of the Mariana Trench, Richard became the only man in the world to have flown into space, reached both the North and South Poles and visited “the bottom of the Earth”.
During his 36,000ft Pacific Ocean dive in a British-designed submersible, he filmed tiny translucent creatures scuttling on the ocean floor – but, shockingly, also found rubbish left by a
Chinese expedition.
The British-born entrepreneur said:
“It was a descent into darkness in the
ASTRONAUT Entrepreneur on space visit truest sense. It’s a four-hour journey to the bottom but you are going down fast. When we got to the bottom I saw this monstrously long cable littering the seafloor. That was very sad.
“On the way back up I saw a siphonophore – a multi-segmented large life form. It looked like a large squid. I feel very privileged to have been at the bottom of the Earth.”
He was almost seven miles underwater – meaning that if you moved Mount Everest onto the sea floor there would still be 1.5 miles to the surface.
Richard, 59, took pictures, posters and poems from young Mirror readers down with him. Many of their schools followed his dive and he is hoping to inspire them to save the planet.
He took photos of the deepest rocks on Earth sitting on the Pacific plate and collected samples for analysis.
And he made a short film down there – just as he did when he was an astronaut on the International Space Station in 2008.
He added: “You can see these nice little four or five inch long translucent black worms. They’re there all over the floor. And you can also see tracks of larger things that are out there.”
Incredibly, he did the whole 12-hour trip without going to the toilet.
He laughed: “I know the kids would be interested in that!”
After his debrief it was time to celebrate becoming the 14th person to officially descend the Trench.
Richard added: “We met on the Sky deck – there was a cooler full of beers and I had a bottle of vodka on ice which was lovely. It was a fantastic end to an incredible day.”
I’ve gained weight and a lot of muscle which I’m proud of THALIA HEFFERNAN INSTAGRAM YESTERDAY
THALIA Heffernan has told of her past struggles with mental health and eating issues after a troll said she had gained weight.
The 25-year-old Dubliner revealed she has had a difficult relationship with her body throughout her career as a model.
In a lengthy post to Instagram, she urged people to be kinder and consider people’s battles behind closed doors.
Thalia wrote: “To the fake account [sounded masculine] who was concerned about my ‘obvious weight gain’ in my latest post, thank you but I’m good.
“Yes, I’ve gained weight and a lot of muscle, which I’m really proud of.
“I also was waiting for my period, where naturally I was bloated and sore [to most you probably wouldn’t recognise it but for me it took a lot to post it knowing I didn’t ‘look my best].
Also, I’m gonna talk about my periods because a combination of eating and mental health issues meant I lost them before and my amazing body was able to give me that gift back again.”
The former Dancing With The Stars contestant said she has grown to feel “proud” of her body but admitted such comments could have acted as triggers in the past when she was feeling low.
Thalia added: “Opinions like these are the kind of thing that made me sit and consider deleting this at 2am last night.
“But, on a clearer head today, without my belly feeling like it was on fire thanks to Mother Nature, I realised how proud I am of it.
“My body may fluctuate, but it carries me everyday and works to allow me to stretch, move and survive. I think that’s pretty special.”
She reflected on difficult times in her life where she would be left in tears and ‘beating herself up’ over her weight.
Thalia said: “There was a time
I couldn’t, working out/stretching hurt because my protruding bones would bruise and I felt like they’d crumble under the impossibly small weight of my body.
“There was also times where I was ‘big’ enough to rip the seams of sample pieces on set/ on shows.
“On both occasions I would cry and beat myself up for hours, thinking I was ‘too fat’ to be happy. My size was never my issue.”
After a decade working in the industry, Thalia said she’s currently the healthiest she had ever been but urged her 52,000 followers to be kinder to themselves and others.
She added: “In saying that, on a bad day, this could have caused me to stop eating. Please, do not aspire to be my
HONEST
‘size’, aspire to be your body’s best to allow you to be YOUR best.”
She added: “Please remember that you never ever know what’s going on behind closed doors.
“Passing negative judgment on someone’s size/ weight/skin colour/ skin texture or anything else isn’t going to make you feel any better and isn’t going to make them feel better.
“Let’s try harder to be better to ourselves and in turn it’ll be easier to be better to others.” Lending her support, Rosanna Davison said: “So well said & brave to share.”
Thalia replied: “Thanks Rosanna, you know what this industry can be like, sending loads of love your way.”