Banished Babies: The Secret History of Ireland's Baby Export Business (31 page)

17.
DoEA 345/96/I, Letter from TJ. Horan, 14 January 1952

18.
The Irish Times,
8 October 1951

19.
DoEA 345/96/I, Telex, Horan to Woods, 31 Decem- ber1951

20.
DoEA 345/96/I, Horan to Molloy, 16 January 1952

21.
DoEA 345/96/I, Horan to Molloy, 21 November 1950

22.
DoEA 345/96/I, 29 December 1950

23.
DoEA 345/96/I, Horan to Molloy, 16 January 1952

24.
DoEA 345/96/I, Horan to Chief Superintendent, 4 January 1952

25.
Ibid

26.
Ibid

27.
DoEA 345/96/II, Brogan to Commins, DoEA

28.
DoEA 345/96/I, Ms R Kenny, memo 2 November 1951

29.
Quoted by Elizabeth Marriott, ‘A National Tragedy’, in
Hampshire Life, Daily Hampshire Gazette
Magazine, 8-14 May 1998.

30.
Interview with Mary Theresa Monaghan, Dublin 1998. All subsequent quotations are from letters and documents provided by Ms Monaghan to the author.

31.
Daily Mail,
Weekend, 10 October 1998

32.
Ibid

33.
Chicago Tribune,
6 July 1955

34.
DoEA 345/96/I, Horan to Molloy, 24 January 1952

4. A Hard Act To Follow

1.
DoEA 345/96/I, Horan to Molloy, 24 January 1952

2.
J.H. Whyte,
Church and State in Modern Ireland, 1923-1979,
p. 276

3.
DoEA 345/96/I, Wm, Fay, DoEA, to Irish embassy, Washington, 25 April 1952

4.
This distinction between ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’ was found to be unconstitutional by the Irish Supreme Court in the late 1970s. But the effect of the Supreme Court decision was not to give ‘illegitimate’ children the same rights as ‘legitimate’ ones – ie the right not to be exported – but rather to legalise the export of ‘legitimate’ children as well. But by this time the American traffic had already come to a halt.

5.
McQuaid Papers, Letter from Department of Justice to Fr Chris Mangan, 4 November 1952

6.
Ibid

7.
The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child,
Nancy Newton Verrier, (Lafayette, California, 1993) provides a thoroughgoing account of the psychological damage that can be wrought by separation, and in particular the feeling – and enduring dread – of abandonment.

5. A Major Inquisition

1.
DoEA 345/96/545

2.
DoEA 345/96/I, Horan to Molloy, 21 November 1950

3.
DoEA 345/96/I, reference dated 26 August 1950

4.
Interview with Anne Phelan, November 1996, Dublin

5.
DoEA 345/96/545, Kennan, DoEA, to Berry, Justice, 25 June 1954

6.
Flaherty quoted in
Ibid

7.
DoEA 345/96/545, D.I. John Flaherty’s report, 9 July 1954

8.
Ibid

9.
Ibid

10.
Lynda Harden, now Hargrave, provided all the details about her personal story by way of email correspondence.

11.
The names of all the American Air Force couples as well as the babies’ natural mothers, have been blanked out from the official Garda investigation file. However, thanks to an oversight, the name ‘Autry’ remains visible in one document. One day, out of the blue, I received a query from an American man called Gene Autry who was desperately seeking information about his origins, having just discovered, in 1997, that he had been born in Ireland and adopted. He had had no idea he was an anonymous baby in a Garda investigation file. By comparing what information he had gathered with the details I had obtained from the files, I was able to identify Gene of as one of the ‘St Rita’s 8’ and provided him with all the information about his origins and unorthodox acquisition by the Autrys from the Garda file. Gene subsequently discovered much more from his adoptive mother and shared that information with me.

12.
Copy of Marie Keating’s letter to Mary Autry supplied by Gene Autry.

13.
DoEA 345/96/545, Kennan, DoEA, to Dutko, US embassy, 27 November 1954

14.
DoEA 345/96/545, Kennan to Fay, internal memo, 19 October 1954

15.
Ibid

16.
Ibid

17.
DoEA 345/96/545, Private Secretary to Minister, 22 October 1954

18.
DoEA 345/96/545, Minister’s minute, 25 October 1954

19.
DoEA 345/96/545, Kennan to Morrissey, internal memo, 13 January 1955

20.
DoEA 345/96/545, telex 83, Kennan to Kirwan, telex 136, Kennan to Woods, telex 212, Woods to Kennan, January 1955

21.
DoEA 345/96/545, Fr Keane’s original reference quoted in Kennan to Morrissey, internal memo, 13 January 1955

22.
Ibid

23.
DoEA 345/96/545, Morrissey to Rynne, internal memo, 20 January 1955.

24.
Handwritten note on above memo.

25.
New Haven and Connecticut Register,
2 February 1955

26.
DoEA 345/280, Garda Siochana, Metropolitan Division, Alleged Trade in Irish Children for American Couples, 15 February 1955

27.
DoEA 345/280, Kennan, DoEA, to Berry, Justice, 11 March 1955

28.
DoEA 345/280, Berry to Kennan, 2 April 1955

29.
DoEA 345/280, Morrissey to Woods, internal memo, 13 April 1955

30.
DoEA 345/96/545, Morrissey internal memo, 28 April 1955

31.
DoEA 345/96/545. An undated handwritten note on the margin of Morrissey’s internal memo to Rynne of 20 January 1955 states ‘instruction subsequently cancelled by Minister after further discussion with Mr Morrissey’.

32.
DoEA 345/96/545, Cosgrave’s note on Morrissey’s internal memo to Minister, 20 May 1955

33.
DoEA 345/96/545, Morrissey, DoEA, to Adams, US embassy, 31 May 1955

34.
DoEA 345/96/545, Kenny to Kennan, internal memo, 21 February 1955; Kennan to Morrissey, internal memo, 24 February 1955

35.
DoEA 345/96/545, J. Shields, Irish embassy, Washington to Secretary, DoEA, 12 June 1957; Morrissey to Secretary, internal memo, 19 June 1957

6. From Cock-Ups

1.
DoEA 345/96/II, Angel Guardian Home to Sr Monica, St Patrick’s; Mother Rosamund, Castlepollard and Sr Barbara, Sean Ross Abbey, 12 May 1954

2.
DoEA 345/96/II, Reddy to Barrett, 11 February 1955

3.
DoEA 345/96/II, O’Grady to Barrett, 7 July 1955

4.
DoEA 345/96/II, Barrett quotes the Kansas letter in a letter of his own to Ms Kenny at the DoEA, 20 August 1955

5.
DoEA 345/96/II, Quealy’s circular and related correspondence.

6.
DoEA 345/96/II, Barrett to Morrissey, 14 July 1955

7.
DoEA 345/96/II, ‘Discussion with Monsignor O’Grady at the Department on the 16th January 1956’

8.
DoEA 345/96/II, Morrissey to O’Grady, 8 December 1955

9.
Ibid

10.
DoEA 345/96/II, Morrissey, DoEA to Sean Ronan, Irish Consul in Chicago, 22 September 1956

11.
DoEA 345/96/II, ‘Discussion with Monsignor O’Grady’,
op. cit.

12.
DoEA 345/96/II, Ronan, Chicago, to Woods, DoEA, 29 August 1956

13.
DoEA 345/96/II, Morrissey to Ronan, 22 September 1956

14.
DoEA 345/96/II, Welfare Dept., Madison, Wisconsin to Sean Ronan, Chicago Consul, 22 September 1956.

15.
DoEA 345/96/1/2, National Conference of Catholic Charities, Annual Meeting 1957, report from Sean Ronan, Chicago Consul, to DoEA, Dublin

16.
DoEA 345/96/II, covering note to Minister, 3 February 1956

7. ... To Cover-Up

1.
DoEA 345/96/1/1, ‘Report to Government re Adoption of Irish Children...’, various drafts

2.
DoEA 345/96/III. This file contains further drafts of the Report

3.
Dáil Debates, 10 April 1956, Col 8

4.
Ibid

5.
Dáil Debates, 19 June 1956, Col 473

6.
DoEA 345/96/II, Garda report quoted inJ.J. McCarthy, Dept of Justice, to Woods, DoEA 22 March 1956

7.
Dáil Debates,
op. cit.

8.
Dáil Debates, 18 July 1956, Col 1227. It transpired in the subsequent debate that Mrs O’Carroll had misunderstood the terms of the Adoption Act as it affected foreign adoptions. She had mistakenly believed that the Act banned the export of children over one year of age rather than under one year. And she had taken up the cases of Anthony Barron and Mary Clancy largely because both were over one year of age when removed from Croom hospital, something which she thought was a criminal act. Had she not made this simple error – a consequence of the impenetrable language of the Adoption Act – the Dáil debate would not have taken place at all.

9.
Dáil Debates, 18 July 1956, Cols 1227-8

10.
Ibid,
Col 1229

11.
Ibid,
Cols 1369-70

12.
I
bid,
Cols 1371-72

13.
Ibid,
Cols 1373-74

14.
Ibid

15.
Longford News,
24 September 1955

16.
DoEA 350/297, Morrissey, DoEA to Health, 26 June 1956

17.
Ibid,
Dowling, Health to DoEA, 31 July 1956

18.
Ibid,
Hargadon, Health, to Dublin Board of Assistance, 26 January 1957

19.
Ibid,
Health to DoEA, 14 February 1957

20.
Ibid,
Morrissey to Secretary, internal memo, 6 March 1957

21.
Ibid,
Morrissey, DoEA to Health, 8 March 1957

22.
DoEA 345/96/1/1, internal memo, O’Riordan to Gallagher, 9 October 1961

23.
DoEA 345/96/1/1, O’Riordan internal memo, 30Jan- uary 1962

24.
McQuaid Papers, Cecil Barrett to Bruce Mohler, Director, National Catholic Welfare Conference, Washington, 17 February 1958

25.
New York Times,
1 August 1958

26.
Kevin Murtaugh wrote to me after the first edition of
Banished Babies
was published in 1997. After several letters had passed between us, he opened up and told me his full and very disturbing story.

27.
Kieran McGrath,
The Irish Times
, 11 November 1998

28.
Kentucky Post,
7 December 2007

29.
The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child,
Nancy Newton Verrier, Lafayette, California, 1993

30.
Quoted in
Journey of the Adopted Self,
Betty Jean Lifton, Basic Books, New York 1994, p.102

31.
Ibid,
p. 103

32.
Ibid,
p. 107

8. A Very Grave Offence

1.
Interview with Karl Mullen, Dublin, 1997

2.
The names of Wedderburn and Woulfe are fictitious; real names have been changed for legal reasons.

3.
This account of the Garda investigation was given to me by a departmental official who had sight of the file. The file itself was never released for public inspection.

4.
Irish Press,
20 January 1965

5.
Interview with priest, May 1996

6.
DoEA 345/96/II, Fr Brogan, Chicago to Ms R Kenny, DoEA, 8 May 1957. The other two were Fr Cecil Barrett of the Catholic Social Welfare Bureau, and Ms Rita Kenny, an official in the Passport Office.

7.
RTÉ, Today Tonight, 9 April 1991

8.
Interview with former member of the Adoption Board involved in the investigation.

9.
Interview with the social worker, March 1996

10.
Interview with Sr Sarto, Cork, June 1996

9. A Troublesome Priest

1.
Interview with Msgr Bryan Walsh, Dublin, June 1996

2.
DoEA 345/96/I, Fay to Irish Consulate in New York, 8 August 1952

3.
DoEA 345/96/II, Fr Bernard Brogan, Chicago, to Rita Kenny, DoEA, 8 May 1957

4.
McQuaid Papers, Barrett to Mangan, 30 March 1950

10. Jim and Dorothy: No Price Too High

1.
The name ‘Rowe’ is fictitious, but all other names are real. This account of the Rowes’ adoption of an Irish baby is based on the correspondence between them, the Angel Guardian Home in Brooklyn and St Clare’s Adoption Society in Co Meath. Mrs Rowe (deceased) kept every letter she received from the Angel Guardians and from the nuns in Ireland. She also meticulously copied by hand every letter she sent them, and retained copies of all official documents, affidavits, receipts, airline tickets, etc.

11. Pat: Against My Will

1.
Interview with Pat Thuillier, December 1996

12. Mary, Michael and Kevin: Legitimate Error?

1.
Interview with Mary and Michael Geraghty, June 1996

2.
Untitled, undated two page typescript given to the author by Sr Mary.

3.
Interview with Sr Sarto, June 1996

4.
Interview with Sr Mary, June 1996

5.
DoEA 345/96/I Sr Frances Elizabeth to Ms Ennis, Private Secretary to Minister, 26 June 1952

6.
Sample surrender/consent form provided by Sr Sarto, Sacred Heart Convent, Cork.

7.
Interview with Kevin Bates, Leesburg, Virginia, USA, May 1996

8.
Statement from St Patrick’s Guild, in response to queries, 19 June 1996

13. Maureen: Seek And Ye Shall Find (But Don’t Hold Your Breath)

1.
Interview with Maureen, Virginia Beach, USA, May 1996, and subsequent conversations. Additional details from her mother.

2.
Barrett,
Adoption,
pp. 48-52

14. Deny Till They Die

1.
DoEA 345/96/I/I, internal memo, 13 February 1962