# adoption series

Last year

2022

# New Law

Adopted people will no longer have to attend mandatory information session when seeking records

The long-awaited Birth Information and Tracing Bill will be published today.

13.9k

Jan 12th 2022, 6:30 AM

All time

# Adoption

40 years of nothing, then a message saying 'I'm your son': Mother & son reunite after 4 decades

A Facebook friend request earlier this year changed Maria Arbuckle’s life forever.

Maria Arbuckle was sent from Armagh to St Patrick's mother and baby home in Dublin in 1981

She spent the next four decades trying to find her son, Paul

A Facebook friend request earlier this year changed her life forever, Órla Ryan reports

77.5k

Nov 13th 2021, 12:05 AM

# Adoption

O'Gorman says term 'birth mother' is 'reductive and hurtful' ahead of legislation debate

The minister is set to discuss the Birth Information and Tracing Bill at a meeting of the Oireachtas Children’s Committee this afternoon.

27.1k

Sep 28th 2021, 11:36 AM

# information and tracing

Denying adopted people access to their birth certs 'could re-traumatise them'

Survivors of Mother and Baby Homes have said “the right to truth is key”, an Oireachtas Committee heard today.

6.5k

Jul 13th 2021, 5:16 PM

# long lost sisters

Geraldine was born in St Patrick's, her sister Pauline was born in Bessborough - 50 years later they found each other

Four years ago a social worker “stumbled across” information that would change their lives forever.

Both women sought to find their birth parents, but instead discovered each other, Órla Ryan writes

A social worker 'stumbled across' information that changed their lives forever

They say adopted people have a right to their birth certs and medical history

51.9k

May 2nd 2021, 12:05 AM

# birth certs

O'Gorman says adopted people will get birth certs and other information under new legislation

The minister has also launched a consultation process for a redress scheme for survivors of Mother And Baby Homes.

18.9k

Updated

Mar 10th 2021, 5:10 PM

# birth registration

Report into illegal adoptions estimates there are thousands of 'suspicious' files, but advises against inquiry

Minister Roderic O’Gorman says “deep ethical issues” arise in relation to illegal birth registrations, and an inquiry may still happen.

10.2k

Mar 9th 2021, 4:26 PM

# mother-and-baby homes

'If the Commission dissolves tomorrow, we'll be denied justice': Survivor says testimony was 'misrepresented'

One survivor says her experience was “misrepresented” to a “shocking extent” in the final report by the Commission into Mother and Baby Homes.

8.8k

Feb 27th 2021, 9:30 AM

# Multiple Sclerosis

'Lives could be saved': Woman with MS says adopted people should have access to medical history

“So many lives could be made better, saved, elongated, if doctors knew what they were testing for.”

25.8k

Feb 6th 2021, 10:30 AM

# Commission

'Illegitimate children could contaminate the morals of society so had to be hidden and illegally adopted'

Adopted people and survivors of mother and baby homes say forced adoption was widespread, regardless of what the commission says.

34.3k

Jan 17th 2021, 8:00 AM

# Adoption

'We were told our mothers were prostitutes and ne'er-do-wells. My mother was a senior civil servant, aged 30'

Susan Lohan says adopted people have for decades been fed a false narrative about their mothers in the hopes they won’t try to find them.

122k

Jan 16th 2021, 10:30 AM