Martin Bridgeman

In a past Ireland, women who found themselves pregnant outside of marriage were shunned, shamed and despised. Things have thankfully changed in this respect but there is still a generation of women and their children still in need of resolution for what was done to them.

Many brave women (of which the extraordinary Philomena Lee is probably the most famous as I write) have spoken out and fought for the right to reconcile with their children. In a large number of cases from the late 40’s to the 70’s, children were literally sold by religious orders; by that I mean that children were adopted and money changed hands. This is in addition to the wrenching of the most basic bond possible, that of mother and child. To purge them of their sins, the women had to either pay money to leave the Mother And Baby homes or to work in conditions like the odious Magdalen Laundries. In a significant number of cases they stayed for years, binding with their children and then having to see them taken away, often without any notice.

This does not ignore the fact that most adoptions were to good homes but the adopted children often had to wrestle with feelings of abandonment and of a sundering of the facts of their birth and subsequent lives as adoptees. Current legislation means that they have no right to see their records or have a full birth certificate which is a basic thing that non-adoptees take for granted.

Here’s the text of one document that mothers had to sign, almost all against their will, some in ignorance and naivety, but always with the inevitable fear of the consequences of breaking their word:

“I, mother and lawful guardian of the child x request the agency to arrange for the adoption of my child, and I authorise them to make the necessary arrangements, without further reference to me, and I undertake not to interfere with any arrangements made by them in this matter, or to make any claim on, or attempt to communicate with my child or those by whom he shall be adopted.”

These documents were drafted with the collusion of the Irish state and proper society and condemned women to a lifetime of secrecy, shame, fear and hurt of the most fundamental kind. Add in the real and present danger of crossing the church that judged them and you have women who were treated like slaves and made to feel they had no rights. In retrospect it beggars belief but it happened and there’s still time to right some of the wrongs.

Sorry, as an Irish adopted person I had to say this.