Cows in my field are better tagged than children who are adopted
Man can’t trace biological mother pleads for paperwork to be released
A MAN who was illegally adopted through a controversial agency has hit out at the lack of paperwork on adoptees, saying: ‘The cows in our field are tagged better.’
St Patrick’s Guild, which was well known for organising illegal adoptions is closing down next month and will hand over its files to the HSE.
The files will be moved to a warehouse and could take years to be processed, leaving hundreds of people in limbo.
Seán Travers, 67, who was born in the Bessboro mother and baby home in Cork, said going public was the last thing he wanted to do, having grown up feeling ashamed
‘We are people, we are not animals’
that he was adopted (now he says he is no longer ashamed).
But now, in his last-ditch effort to uncover his true identity as he approaches his 70s, he has begged St Patrick’s Guild to pass on his details to his birth mother.
‘I’ve been searching for years and getting nowhere,’ he said.
‘I’ve asked St Patrick’s Guild over and over for help. This really is my last hope by going public. Most people don’t want to go public but I’ve no choice now. We are people, we are not animals, and on the farm where I grew up the cattle were tagged better than adopted people in Ireland.
‘I don’t know what else to do and it’s terrible to think at this age I don’t know who I really am and I’m not able to find out. For the little I do know, and it may not even be correct, I was born on February 1, 1947, and someone came to Bessboro and paid £54 to take my birth mother out of there afterwards. But I was left behind.’
In March, the Irish Mail on Sun- day revealed that 13,00 files held by the Catholic-run adoption agency will be handed over to the State next month. St Patrick’s Guild arranged thousands of adoptions from the 1940s to the 1970s, including the secret export of 572 children to the US.
Last month, we revealed how the guild admitted to another illegal adoption when a man whose birth mother had died sought his records from Sr Frances Fahy at the agency. He was given two birth certificates, one for his biological mother and a second for his socalled adopted family.
Mr Travers said he believed he was given to the Travers family in Donegal because they couldn’t have their own children and they needed sons to run their farm.
‘I was adopted at three months from Bessboro [and] only found out when I was in school at eight or nine. Some of us kids were fighting and then their parents came to me and said, “If you don’t be quiet and leave our kids alone, we will have you sent back to where you came from.”
‘I approached my adoptive mother and she gave me a little bit of detail but never went into it. They were lovely people, the best, but they didn’t tell me about my adoption properly. I’ve a brother who was adopted too, and really he doesn’t know anything.
‘I left home at 15. My parents were cattle farmers, I didn’t want to work on the farm any more and there was no money in it so I went to England. My parents are now dead. I always think I was boarded out to help with the farm because I was a boy, so that was the idea.’
Mr Travers moved to Britain to work on building sites.
‘I went on to join the armed forces and that’s when I got my birth cert. My biological mother’s name was on it but honestly I don’t know if it’s true or not. I was never legally adopted, there was no paperwork.
‘From what I can tell my mother was Ann or Annette Doherty and she came from Lanarkshire in Scotland to have me in Bessboro. She may have been born in Ireland. They said she was either 20 or 30. If that’s her, I would love to know if she is still alive.’
Mr Travers married Margaret Smith in Lincoln and they adopted their only daughter, Rebecca Lee, who now lives in New Zealand.
‘My wife died in 2010 and my daughter is living abroad. She was able to find her birth mother because she was born in England. Not like here, where you can get nothing. If anyone knows my mother, please help me.’
Philomena Lee, whose story of the forced adoption of her son was
‘If anyone knows my mother, please help me’
made into the film Philomena, has backed the MoS campaign to have the files released – which would help adoptees trace their families.
She also called for a full investigation into how the guild exported so many children.
Ms Lee told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘I hope the Government looks at the files now, because what went on there and in other agencies run by the nuns wasn’t right.’