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Illegal Adoptions
Update:
Reilly:
Scale of illegal adoptions is unknown
THE
Government has admitted it has no idea as to the scale of illegal
adoptions and birth registrations facilitated by more than 40
mother-and-baby homes which closed in 1972.
Click
here to read this article by Conall Ó Fátharta in the Irish
Examiner of June 16th 2011
Prime Time, May 2010
On RTÉ’s Prime Time (May 20th, 2010) Adoption Authority chairman Geoffrey Shannon gave a personal guarantee that he would deal
with the issue of illegal adoptions. Mr. Shannon’s comments represent a departure from the
previous Adoption Board position on illegal adoptions, which was to deny
that they ever occurred.
In
light of this
commitment, we are advising people who were illegally adopted and
natural parents whose sons/daughers were illegally adopted, to contact
Geoffrey Shannon requesting assistance as well as an investigation into
the circumstances surrounding their adoptions.
We
have drafted sample letters which you are welcome to download and amend
to suit your own needs. We recommend that you copy the letter to
Adoption Rights Alliance, Frances Fitzgerald (Minister for Children) and
James Reilly (Minister for Health). Click the links below for the sample
letters.
Not
sure if you were illegally adopted? Click
here for a definition of illegal adoptions
IMPORTANT
DO NOT
send original documents to the Adoption Authority
Send photocopies only
Sample
letter for people adopted illegally
Sample
letter for natural parents of people adopted illegally
Correspondence
On 31st May 2010 Adoption Rights Alliance wrote to Geoffrey Shannon and
the then Adoption Board regarding the issue of illegal adoptions,
specifically referring to one particular case which the Board
(previously under the chairmanship of Jim O'Sullivan) has ignored for five
years (despite being alerted by us in 2005).
Click
here to view specific questions put to the then Adoption Board.
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