It’s a small country. My birth mother knows how to find me
Voice star speaks of childhood in Irish orphanage
A SINGER who grew up in a Galway orphanage and is now starring on The Voice UK has said that her birth mother knows where she is if she wants to find her.
Sharon Murphy hit the headlines after her haunting rendition of Forever Young on The Voice UK last weekend moved coach Tom Jones to tears.
Sharon, 52, who lives in the Burren in Co. Clare was placed in St. Joseph’s Industrial School in Clifden at 11 months and remained there until she was 16.
As a child she turned to music to help heal the wounds of her past, after spending years being whipped and beaten along with the other children in the school.
‘I’m not a victim. My music is healing’
Speaking last night, Sharon said that while she has details for her birth mother, she stopped looking when she was 19.
‘I know her name and my older sister’s name. She kept my sister, who was white, and she was from Fatima Mansions in Dublin. I was born in Hammersmith but she brought me home to Dublin and kept me for around 11 months.
‘I was never able to find her. I did look when I was 19 but I hit a wall and stopped. If I looked now I probably could get further but the way I feel, my mother knows where I am, she put me into Clifden and it wouldn’t be difficult for her to find me now. It’s not like it was London or America, it’s a small country.’
Sharon says she has been overwhelmed by the reaction to her song last week but doesn’t want to be known as a victim.
‘I am so happy people can hear my music, but I went through the redress investigation a few years ago. I made a submission and brought my case to them. I [was] able to share on the public record and it was healing for me and a good moment. For me, I’m not a victim, my music and words allowed me to express myself. Most of my music is my personal stuff and it’s very healing.
‘I was not the only one in this situation and people think there were not so many black children in these orphanages, but there was 14 in mine alone.
‘It’s a shame how we were treated because we were brilliant athletes. Our talents were wasted. When I heard about the grave in Tuam last year, it was too much, I couldn’t take it in,’ she added.
‘I was born in the UK and there was a community of Irish and Caribbean/African. I’m guessing but I think my father was from there. My mother brought me to Ireland, I don’t know why. She was 25. While there was a stigma against lone parents there would have been more so for a black child.’
Sharon, recalled some of the horrific experiences in St. Joseph’s.
‘I grew up in a very violent place. We were beating the s**t out of each other, it was all we knew, you had older kids hitting younger kids and the other way around, everyone was behaving through fear.
‘We used to eat pig’s food, there was very little food in the place. My worst memory is of waking up and hearing this terrible sound, this nun whipping these three boys because they tried to run away. All we could hear was screaming.’
The experiences of her past led Sharon to believe that she shouldn’t have children of her own: ‘I felt I had too much in my background. I didn’t feel I would be much of a mother. But I have thought of fostering.’
Sharon said the experience of being on The Voice has been ‘overwhelming’: ‘I am still in touch with my friends from the orphanage, they wanted me to apply and I went to Belfast to audition but I felt I sang really badly, and when I got picked I was in shock. Tom Jones is a kind man and so respectful of women. I have been singing for years. As a child I was told I would never amount to anything so to be able to sing is wonderful.
‘They told me I would never be anything’