Adoption Rights Alliance



			...regaining identities, histories and rights for adopted people...

Refused your birth certificate by the Adoption Authority? Click here to learn how to locate it for yourself.

19^th November 2014

Adoption Rights Alliance welcomes government decision not to oppose Adoption Bill

Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA), which advocates for equal human and civil rights for those affected by Ireland's closed secret adoption system has welcomed the government’s decision not to oppose the Adoption Bill being introduced in the Seanad today. The Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014 is sponsored by Senators Jillian van Turnhout and Averil Power and for ARA it represents an important first step towards equality.

On Monday of this week representatives from Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR) and ARA met Children and Youth Affairs Minister, Dr James Reilly.

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3rd November 2014

Adoption Rights Alliance welcomes adoption information bill as a first step towards equality

Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA), which advocates for equal rights for those affected by Ireland’s closed, secret, forced adoption system, welcomes the Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014 sponsored by Senators Jillian van Turnhout and Averil Power.
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31st August 2014

Philomena Project Charity Single
The wonderful Declan Zapala has composed a beautiful piece of music in honour of his mother, which he has called 'Philomena' in honour of Philomena Lee.
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16th July 2014

Press Release: Adoption Rights Alliance welcomes appointment of Judge Murphy, but cites grave concerns about Inter-Departmental report
Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA), which advocates for equal rights for those affected by Ireland’s closed, secret, forced adoption system, welcomes the appointment of Judge Yvonne Murphy as Chairperson of the Commission of Investigation into matters related to mother and baby homes, but has expressed grave concerns about the report of the Inter-Departmental Group.
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8th July 2014

FORSAKEN is an installation by Mannix Flynn and Maedhbh Mc Mahon which has an adoption/Magdalene theme. It opens on July 16th, Wednesday at 6pm at Dollard House, Wellington Quay, Dublin (Beside the Clarence Hotel). The work will be opened by Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan.

30th June 2014

Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA) and Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR) Make Joint Submission to Terms of Reference for Commission of Inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes
Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA) and Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR) today submitted a comprehensive briefing to inform the terms of reference for the Commission of Inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes. ARA and JFMR, who, along with representatives of Irish First Mothers and historian Sean Lucey, met with Minister Flanagan on Wednesday, 25 June 2014, and suggested that the Commission of Investigation should focus on the issue of children born out of wedlock in Ireland since 1922 rather than institutions per se. Communicated in that meeting and in the joint submission is the understanding that this issue gives rise to six distinct fields of inquiry:

Infant mortality rates;
Adoption practices;
Vaccine trials and medical experimentation;
Forced labour and incarceration of unmarried girls and women who gave birth to babies or were seen to be ‘at risk’ of becoming mothers;
Conditions in the institutions, including neglect, denial of adequate medical care and cruel punishment of unmarried mothers and their infants and children; and
Burials of unmarried mothers and their children who remained in recarceral institutions.

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Click here to read the submission

24th January 2014

Philomena Lee to visit Ireland to launch The Philomena Project
Philomena Lee will be in Dublin this Friday, 24^th January, to launch The Philomena Project in association with the Adoption Rights Alliance, which aims to effect legislative change by calling on the Irish state to grant access to adoption records for both in-country and Irish-US adopted people and their families. There are over 60,000 “adoption” files held by the HSE, private adoption agencies and church representatives all of which are the sole source of people’s identities. Sixty years after the introduction of legal but essentially forced adoption, The Philomena Project is calling on the Irish government to lead the way and enact legislation to allow the release of these 60,000 plus files to the people whose identities these contain.
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“In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage, to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning . . . and the most disquieting loneliness."

Alex Haley, Author of Roots