‘Overwhelming’ to meet father at last

‘It was the biggest shock’

A WOMAN born in the mother and baby home that was the focus of the award-winning film Philomena has told of her joy at finding her birth father.

Teresa Collins, now 53, was born in Sean Ross Abbey Mother and Baby Home in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, on December 20, 1963.

She managed to track down her father Billy Watson with the help of the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, and met him for the first time ever seven months ago.

Ms Collins said she was ‘overwhelmed’ at meeting her father.

‘It is just wonderful, we are still getting to know each other but there was no doubt in my mind that he was my father from the second I laid eyes on him,’ she told the Irish Daily Mail.

‘We are very alike and I am so happy he is in my life I love being around him and I don’t let a day go by without contacting him.’

The feeling is mutual, as Mr Watson, who is now suffering from Parkinson’s disease, said while Teresa turning up on his doorstep was a shock, her sudden arrival in his life ‘has brought nothing but good’. Mr Watson smiled proudly at his daughter when recalling how they first met last September. ‘She’s a daddy’s girl,’ he said. ‘I have two other daughters whom I love dearly and while this is something you would never expect in your life it has brought nothing but good into my life to have Teresa.’

Billy, who will be 78 in May, said he knew very little about his daughter from a previous relationship until last year.

He had been dating her mother for a short time ‘many years ago’. Teresa said he may have asked to marry her mother – then 18 – at the time, but he can’t remember everything and wasn’t given any information about her.

On learning of Teresa’s existence, he said: ‘It was the biggest shock anyone could imagine.

‘I got this letter in the door from Tusla, and I thought it was about a cousin or someone else.’

Mr Watson said he gave the letter to his family and they told him to look into it. ‘We replied to them and said, “Fair enough, let’s meet” and it happened so fast.

‘I didn’t need DNA or anything like that – sure, she is very like me, I knew it instantly. You know when you meet one of your own, you just know.’

Ms Watson moved to the UK when he was in his early 20s and married an Irishwoman called Mary Kate Rigney. The couple went on to have two daughters.

When he retired, the family moved back to Cloughjordan, his hometown in Co. Tipperary.

‘To think I didn’t know my daughter for 50 years: it is shocking. I am sorry if she was ever hurt but she seems very happy and we are doing OK,’ he told the Mail. ‘It has added so much happiness to my life and I am truly grateful to have Teresa in my life.’

Billy made the emotional journey to Sean Ross Abbey – the home that featured in the Oscarnominated film Philomena – last week with Teresa for the first time. ‘I find it all so hard that she was in there but we are getting through it and moving forward.’

Ms Collins, for her part, feels ‘blessed’ that her grandparents took her out of the home.

‘I think a priest came to the house arranged the whole thing but they paid £100 to get us out of there. My grandparents are my parents as far as I’m concerned, I’ve no anger towards my birth mother but we don’t connect.’

It’s understood around 483 babies were secretly exported from the Sean Ross Abbey home to the US for adoption.

The 2013 film Philomena, starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, tells the story of Philomena Lee whose son was given up for adoption when she was forced to stay at the Roscrea home.