The full scale of illegal adoptions and birth registrations in Ireland prior to the 1970s is unknown, the government has admitted.
Mother-and-baby homes, normally run by the church, facilitated the illegal adoption of children until 42 homes were closed in 1972, after the Health Care Act was enacted.
During parliamentary questions Socialist Party TD Clare Daly asked the current Health Minister James Reilly about the scale of the of illegal birth registrations and illegal adoptions facilitated by such homes.
Minister Reilly admitted the full extent was unknown.
“The issues raised by the deputy relate to practices that were private arrangements which involved the birth of a child being registered as the child of those persons or families that took the child, rather than of the birth mother," he said.
"The issuing of birth certificates is a matter for the Department of Social Protection, and suspected irregularities should be investigated by that department. The scale of such illegal birth registrations is unknown."
Speaking about the possibility of tracing the historical documentarion he said : "the nature and secretiveness of the process means that any correlation of data is extremely difficult".
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Prior to the 1970s severl religious institutions in Ireland ran mother-and-baby homes throughout the country. The homes, normally run by nuns, were paid a per-capita sum by the state dependant on the numbers they catered for.
Women who fell pregnant out of wedlock were sent to such homes and many forced to work in the laundries, kitchens and farms of these institutions. Once their child was born, they were more often than not forced to give it up for adoption.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Collette2 | Jul 29, 2011, 12:00 AM EDT
Mathiasdermody, your mother, God bless her, had the SIN'S OF THE CHURCH TRANSFERRED UPON HER. How many umarried mothers carried clergy's infants in their womb and where are they today, bearing the stigma of "bad blood of the "fr's" acknowledged amongst themselves. They're different to anyone else; you see one you see them all, no halo's
annjones | Jul 27, 2011, 05:52 PM EDT
It is wonderful to see these people admitting that these adoptions were illegal and that babies were sold. In Australia we are getting petty little apologies saying how sorry that these things happened to young girls and their babies but noone is saying they had any part in it and that everything they did was illegal. Some Archbishops are coming out saying they never knew anything about it, non babies were adopted with Catholic agencies, they never knew any girls that got pregnant. Just how long do we have to put up with this stupidty and blatant lying. We have a Senate Inguiry going on at present to determine if these practices were illegal but many women have documents that have forged signatures, some didn't sign the correct papers, many drugged and had no idea what they were signing, girls not being allowed to see their babies, babies stolen and hidden awary and the list goes on.
mathiasdermody | Jul 27, 2011, 01:44 PM EDT
I was one of the children caught up in this heinous crime by the Catholic Church. Born to a unmarried mother in Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, I was sold to an American couple to be raised as an American. The couple were innocent to a degree simply wanting a child they could not otherwise have. But I had duplicate birth certificates indicating I was born in Ireland to my american parents on one and that I had been born in the U.S. to them. Only through years of research did I find the truth. I was not an orphan. I was taken from my mother because she sinned in the eyes of the church and presented an opportunity for profit to the Abbey. As a result I feel my legacy has been stolen and my Irishness lost. There is no greater sinner in all of Ireland than the catholic church.
Aylward | Jun 17, 2011, 01:22 PM EDT
Let someone explain how US Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts & his wife adopted two Irish children when Irish law prohibits the adoption of Irish children by foreigners.Under the Irish system of adoption, both private placements and private assessments are illegal. Additionally the 1993 Hague Convention on protection and co-operation in respect of inter-country adoption, forbids any improper financial gain from adoption. At one point, the British Sunday Times reported that there are apparently no records of Judge Roberts and his wife adopting these two children through official channels in Ireland and the matter is being looked into. The circumstances of the adoptions certainly raise questions from the perspective of Irish adoption law and whether Judge Roberts and his wife have broken these laws. Why did Roberts have to go to Latin America (some report Honduras) to adopt two Irish children? In other words, what conspiracy was hatched, who fraudulently adopted those children to illegally get them out of Ireland and bring them to Honduras and then give them up for adoption by Roberts? This was “child-laundering,” and happened before he was appointed to the Supreme Court. Evidently it was taboo for the Senate to ask him if he has as little respect for US law as he and his wife demonstrated for Irish law. http://www.isthatlegal.org/archives/2005/08/blondeness_and.html
Searlit | Jun 17, 2011, 12:37 PM EDT
To me, this is one of saddest stories to come out of Ireland. That the Irish government could let the Irish Churches sell their very own.
mamaginnty | Jun 17, 2011, 09:45 AM EDT
You don't really think the nuns were going to keep the evidence, they sold babies like they were a bag of spuds to the highest bidders, usually wealthy americans. Think again, are they going to tell the mother how much they got for her baby. This is going to be horrific for these poor women. This was not just happening in Ireland, any home being run by nuns should be investigated. Plus the charity claim numbers should be taken away completely from the catholic church worldwide. They have always been a money making business, we are never told how much they get from wills left to them, especially from older people over the years, farms, homes, money etc. I said before...the biggest mafia in the world.