DNA tests for people ‘adopted illegally’
Minister announces help for those affected by false birth cert scandal
THE State will offer free DNA tests for people who doubt the accuracy of their birth certificates.
It comes after an inquiry found at least 126 births were illegally and incorrectly registered between 1946 and 1969. These involved a child being placed with adoptive parents, but the birth was registered as if the child had been born to that couple or individual.
THE State will offer free DNA tests for people – possibly numbering in the hundreds – who doubt the accuracy of their birth certs.
An investigation of records from the former St Patrick’s Guild adoption society found at least 126 births were illegally and incorrectly registered between 1946 and 1969.
These involved a child being placed with an adoptive couple, but the birth was registered as if the child had been born to that couple or individual.
Astonishingly, in 79 of these cases, those who were adopted may be ‘entirely unaware’ of the true circumstances of their birth.
Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone confirmed each individual would be contacted by Tusla and said she was ‘truly sorry’ for what happened.
Asked about DNA tests for both those with doubts about their identity, and at least one of the people they believed to be their parents, Ms Zappone said this had been considered.
‘We will undertake these tests in such cases,’ she said, agreeing the cost would be small. A commercial DNA test costs about €100.
Ms Zappone said the information had come to light after the index cards on 126 files – taken from 13,500 records from St Patrick’s Guild – were found to contain the words ‘adopted from birth’.
However, as St Patrick’s handled only about one-third of adoptions at the time, the real figure could be far higher.
A sample ten files were sent to An Garda Síochána for a criminal investigation that began in February, it emerged yesterday.
Each birth certificate says at its base that to alter or falsify the document is a serious offence.
Of the 126 adults affected, 20 now live outside the jurisdiction – with most, if not all, of them unaware that the people they believe to be their natural parents are not actually their birth mother and father.
Eleven live in Britain, seven in the North, one in the US and one in Vietnam. Efforts will now be made to inform all 126, and to identify other cases.
Asked about the shock of mature adults now finding out their whole life has been based on a lie, and whether it was appropriate to disrupt their lives so dramatically, Ms Zappone said: ‘We did struggle with that decision. We made a judgement that people have a right to know who they are.
‘I am truly sorry this has happened. It is a highly sensitive issue with very personal and profound implications for those affected.’
Ms Zappone and officials stressed that no adoption orders were affected, and that these remained inviolate. There is no evidence yet on whether adoptive parents were complicit in the creation of false certs, and whether any money changed hands.
A number of articles in The Irish Mail on Sunday in recent years had shed light on the widespread practise of illegal adoptions. Ms Zappone acknowledged there had been reports of incorrect registrations for many years, but said it has been very difficult ‘to identify and prove in individual cases because of the deliberate failure of those involved to keep records’.
She said the St Patrick’s Guild files were cross-checked with the Adoption Authority of Ireland and the General Register Office (GRO), in a bid to throw further light on the latest Irish social scandal.
In addition to the 79 people who ‘may be entirely unaware of the true circumstances of their birth’, there are another 14 cases where a relative (usually a mother) had contact with St Patrick’s Guild – but where it is unclear whether the person affected was now aware of the truth. There are also 31 people who had contact with the guild in their own right ‘and who may or may not be aware of the incorrect registration in their case’.
Also, two people who were later adopted legally were the subject of an illegal registration initially.
In the cases of a further 16 people, Tusla found insufficient evidence to determine whether an incorrect registration had taken place, Ms Zappone said, adding that the figures are likely to change as the work proceeds.
She said: ‘This is a very serious and sensitive issue. People have the right to know of their true origins and, where we have clear evidence, I believe we have an obligation to tell the people affected. Some may know already, but for others it will be entirely new and very difficult information indeed.’
Tusla has developed a plan for making contact with people and for providing the right supports for them as they absorb the news.
Ms Zappone emphasised that ‘our current information’ is that:
If you or your child has an adoption order, you are not affected;
If you were not born between 1946 and 1969, you’re not affected;
If you were born between 1946 and 1969 and were placed by St Patrick’s Guild and do not have an adoption order, you may be affected.
Ms Zappone said the falsification of birth certs – some also with
Zappone ‘truly sorry’
altered dates of birth – was a practice that was ‘concealed’. ‘Those responsible were generally private adoption societies and private individuals who knowingly concealed the truth and deprived people of their true identity,’ she said.
The State had safeguards in place, including legislation enacted in 1952 to regulate adoption, but these had been ‘circumvented by certain individuals’, she said, adding that this was a matter of profound regret.
Men and women were ‘lied to about who they are’, and these are now ‘men and women in their seventies, sixties, fifties and forties’, she said, who even now may not get the answers they want and need, nor the choice or opportunity to meet their birth parents.
The Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors last night said what had been confirmed by the files could just be the beginning. ‘This is just the tip of a very large iceberg of fraud, forgery, baby trafficking, child abduction and criminal activity by rogue Irish adoption agencies,’ it said.
The umbrella group – comprising Adoption Rights Now, the Bethany Home Survivors, Beyond Adoption Ireland, Adopted Illegally Ireland and the Castlepollard Mother & Baby Home group – said those adoption agencies involved in the latest scandal had destroyed tens of thousands of people’s lives.
‘Perhaps the most vital issue here is that illegally adopted people have spent generations going to their doctors and hospitals and unknowingly giving false and potentially lethal family medical histories that do not, in fact, relate to them,’ it added.
Ex-tánaiste Joan Burton said that as someone who was herself adopted, ‘I am deeply concerned that this information is only coming to light now, and that dozens of people are not aware of the true circumstances of their birth’.
‘Ireland needs, as a matter of urgency, the implementation of adoption tracing legislation, so adult adoptees can access their own records in relation to their birth families,’ the Labour TD added. ‘The Government has been stalling on this for two years.’
Fianna Fáil spokeswoman on Children Anne Rabbitte also voiced her concerns, saying the revelations cast ‘another shadow over the treatment of children in our recent past’.
THAT hundreds of Irish citizens have, in all likelihood, been misled for all of their lives in relation to that most fundamental of human rights – the right to your own identity – is deeply disturbing. But, sadly, when you pause to reflect on the catalogue of hurt that so many have suffered down the decades in this country, this is not news that brings with it the shockwaves that such a revelation should justly warrant.
For what this birth certificate scandal appears, at this stage, to represent is yet another shameful episode in a long line of shameful episodes that have adversely impacted on the lives of so many people in Ireland. And on countless occasions to the degree where people’s lives have been all but destroyed, right up to the point where there is simply no consolation, no succour to be found.
Now, in the wake of the Tuam babies scandal, where the Mail was instrumental in exposing the truth of the matter, we are witnessing hurt upon more hurt, as evidenced by Minister Katherine Zappone’s disclosure yesterday in relation to the St Patrick’s Guild adoption agency.
That children were adopted under the auspices of that agency is not the cause for concern. What is deeply disturbing, however, is the manner in which they were adopted, with the express intent that the children would never know that their adoptive parents were not, in fact, their own flesh and blood. Through cover-up and falsification of birth certificates, Irish citizens had their real identities completely stripped away from them so as to deny them their very birthright.
We now need to establish what exactly the agency’s modus operandi was when this policy appears to have been rife between 1946 and 1969. Under whose authority was such a methodology instigated and who, specifically, was responsible for this overall appalling dereliction of duty and care?
It is now imperative that those who have been denied their true identities are apprised of their full family history. For some, it will be too late to establish family connections. It is never too late, however, to establish the truth.