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NEWS....
9th January 2015
Adoption Rights Alliance gives cautious welcome to Inquiry but cites grave concerns
Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA), which advocates for equal human and civil rights for those affected by Ireland's closed secret forced adoption system has cautiously welcomed certain elements of the Terms of Reference for the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters. However, the group has grave concerns that the inquiry has, from the outset, been limited to only investigating the practices and procedures of those institutions, agencies and individuals with a direct connection to a Mother and Baby Home.
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19th 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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here to read more
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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here to read
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.
Click here to read more
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, 24th
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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11th November 2013
State played important role in denying the
adopted a sense of their origin
Tracing legislation, to enable adopted individuals to identify their
biological parents, has recently become a subject of debate, with TD
Clare Daly, in particular, pressing Taoiseach Enda Kenny and
Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald on the matter. In response
to Daly’s questions in March last year, Fitzgerald agreed reform was
very important and voiced her support for “the strongest possible
legislation to deal with this issue” but warned there were
constitutional obstacles.
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here to read
30th October 2013
When mum met my
mother
Jenny Hudson was adopted as a baby. At 38, she met her
biological mother, and they got on very well. Then she had an idea.
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here to read
21st October 2013
Adoption body got €200k HSE grant in spite
of reporting errors
The HSE gave an adoption agency €200,000 this year despite being
told in a report that the agency had misreported HSE grant money in
financial statements between 2007 and 2010.
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here to read
'The Politics of Philomena' by Mannix
Flynn
The most startling thing to emerge from the premiere last night of
Philomena was the lack of any questioning around accountability for
the theft of a child, in this instance Anthony Lee from his mother
Philomena, who was incarcerated in Sean Ross Abbey for 4 yrs in the
1950s.
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here to read
Film tells true story of a forced adoption
There are lots of Philomena Lees in Ireland, writes Conall Ó
Fátharta
As is so often the case with Irish scandals, it takes Hollywood to
bring them into to the public consciousness.
It certainly was the case with The Magdalene Sisters in 2002, and
the same may happen with the release of Philomena, the story of
Philomena Lee’s search for the son she was forced to put up for
adoption in 1952 when she was aged 19.
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here to read
16th October 2013
Kenny ‘ill-informed’
on rights of adopted, say advocates
Conall Ó Fátharta, Irish Examiner,
October 16, 2013
Adopted people have hit out at “ill-informed” comments by Taoiseach
Enda Kenny about the right of adopted people and natural parents to
trace one another.
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here to read
9th October 2013
Adoption files still
not available two years after Government promise
A woman who spent 30 years trying to trace her adopted daughter
could have found her much sooner if available records had been made
accessible, the Dáil has been told. Independent TD Clare Daly said
there were thousands of women in a similar situation.
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here to read
6th September 2013
Minister's adoption remarks 'worrying'
Remarks by Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald that the Adoption Act is “restrictive” and may be re-examined to allow Irish couples to adopt more easily from a wider range of countries, have been labelled as “worrying”.
Susan Lohan of the Adoption Rights Alliance said any move to re-examine the legislation would be retrograde. “When countries ratify Hague, the numbers available for adoption often fall dramatically. Is this about providing loving homes for children that need them or providing children for couples that want them.”
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Having it both ways on adoption policy
The statement by Frances Fitzgerald, the children’s minister, that she is “going to consider” possible changes to the 2010 Adoption Act to make it easier for Irish couples to adopt from a wider range of countries is more than worrying.
It flies in the face of everything we know — or should have learned — about ensuring that intercountry adoptions take place in accordance with the rights and best interests of the children concerned.
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Click
here to read Nigel
Cantwell's analysis piece
2nd September 2013
Pope 'should watch Philomena's
adoption story'
THE director of a film depicting the true story of an Irish woman
who searched for five decades to find her son who was sold into
adoption in the 1950s has said he hopes the Pope will watch the
film.
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here to read
Frears eager for pope to see his
latest film
VENICE, Italy—Director Stephen Frears really wants Pope Francis to
see his latest film, ''Philomena," the true story of a shamed
Irish woman forced by nuns to give her son up for adoption in the
1950s. He wants it so much, he said so three times during a news
conference on Saturday.
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here to read
Dench: Philomena needs to be told
Dame Judi Dench has revealed that she agreed to star in Stephen Frears' Philomena, because it was a story that "had to be told".
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here to read
23rd July 2013
No returning to 'normal' life for women after giving up babies
After eight years living in the United States, I thought I had become inured to the absurdity of American reality television. Until last week, while on a whim, I flicked on the remote and tuned into Oxygen Channel's controversial reality show, 'I'm Having Their Baby'.
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Adoption agency to withdraw tracing service
A religious-run adoption agency, which facilitated illegal adoptions and exported more than 500 “illegitimate” children, is withdrawing its tracing and information service.
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here to read
20th May 2013
Adoption group may seek UN assistance in extending rights
The Adoption Rights Alliance is considering going to the United Nations in order to force the State to grant adopted people the same rights as every other Irish citizen.
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24th March 2013
Calls for probe into forced adoptions
Groups representing birth mothers and adopted people have called for an investigation into the scale of forced and illegal adoptions in Ireland.
It comes following a national apology by Julia Gillard, the Australian prime minister, to thousands of unmarried mothers who were forced by government policies to give up their children for adoption over several decades.
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SF queries issue of falsified adoption records
Concerns about falsified adoption records in Irish State institutions were raised in the Dáil, following the apology by the Australia n prime minister to single mothers forced to give up their children for adoption.
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Australia’s Gillard makes historic apology for forced adoptions
Australia n prime minister Julia Gillard delivered a historic national apology in parliament to the thousands of unwed mothers who were forced by government policies to give up their babies for adoption over several decades.
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Julia Gillard's adoption apology comes after an abyss of trauma
Gillard shines when touched by emotion, and her standing ovation from mothers wronged by the state was well deserved
Hundreds of mothers and their families gathered yesterday to hear a historic national apology from Australia's prime minister Julia Gillard. Forced to give up their babies, these women were among the thousands of young mothers who endured a cruel and often illegal approach by governments, churches, hospitals and charities towards pregnancy out of wedlock in Australia from the 1950s to the 1970s, whereby unmarried mothers were coerced or deceived into giving up their babies to adoption by married couples.
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Julia Gillard apologises to Australian mothers for forced adoptions
Thousands of unwed women were made to give up their children so that they could be adopted by married couples
Australian prime minister Julia Gillard delivered a historic national apology in parliament on Thursday to the thousands of unwed mothers who were forced by government policies to give up their babies for adoption over several decades.
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here to read
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