Mother and son who were separated for 50 years settle case
‘I’ll enjoy the love of my family’
No record of her baby’s birth
A WOMAN whose son was illegally adopted more than 50 years ago said she hopes her story will help other people in similar situations.
Tressa Reeves, 79, was speaking outside the Four Courts yesterday after both she and her son, who were finally reunited in 2013, settled their case against the State and St Patrick’s Guild Adoption Agency.
Mrs Reeves, then Tressa Donnelly, was just 21 when she gave birth to her son Andre in a Dublin nursing home in 1961.
When she returned in the 1970s to try to trace her son, there was no record of his birth, the High Court heard, and she was told ‘adoptive children rarely look for the birth parents – and boys never do’.
Meanwhile, her son, renamed
Patrick Farrell, wasn’t told he was adopted until after his adoptive mother died in 2012.
Speaking to reporters yesterday Mrs Reeves said that she had spent much of her life looking for her son. ‘When my search began we hadn’t even landed on the Moon,’ she said. ‘Since then there have been many changes. Mostly owing to the advancement of technology… but things hadn’t changed for the men and women and children affected by illegal adoption, some of whom don’t even know their own identity.’
And she went on, ‘I hope the outcome of this case will encourage other people in other situations similar to me to act as I did. Now I intend to enjoy the love and fun of my whole family.’
The terms of their settlement in their action are confidential.
Tressa Donnelly was living in England when she became pregnant in the early 1960s.
Her parents, a headmaster and headmistress, organised the adoption of Andre Donnelly, who was born in a nursing home on Dublin’s Howth Road on March 13, 1961.
During the High Court hearing, Tressa told how she gave birth on a table in the nursing home and was told not to touch her son or hold him as it would not be good for him in the long run.
Mrs Reeves was then taken by a priest to St Patrick’s Guild Adoption Agency to sign forms to have her son adopted before she was flown back to the UK.
At the High Court, Mrs Reeves outlined how she had written over a period of years to St Patrick’s Guild to try to locate her son. In the 1970s, by now a married mother of four daughters, she returned to Dublin
However, there was no record of his birth – and when she inquired with one nun at the adoption agency she said she was told
‘adoptive children rarely look for the birth parents and boys never do’.
Undeterred, Mrs Reeves continued her search and organised for her son to be granted a birth
cert in October 2009 even though she had never met him.
Along the way, she experienced fresh tragedy when her daughter Miranda died of cancer. ‘Miranda never got to meet her brother before she passed away,’ Mrs Reeves said yesterday.
‘At this stage I had already written to the authorities to ask them to speed up my reunion with my son, but to no avail.’
Son Andre was registered as the child of a Co. Carlow couple, and was raised as Patrick Farrell. He suffered years of physical abuse at the hands of his adoptive father, the court heard.
He told the court, ‘I wouldn’t be up here if people had done their job right in 1961.’