My FIL found a suitcase that belonged to his aunt full of newspaper clippings, school books and magazines from the 1960s. I found this classified ad in their Drogheda Independent particularly interesting

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  2. That’s quite normal for the time. Three weeks into my grandparents marriage in the 1950’s, the parish priest knocked on their door with a three year old boy and asked my grandparents to adopt him. His mother had died of TB and the father had ran off and abandoned him. There was no other family willing to take him in. My grandparents couldn’t say no. That kind of thing happened all the time back then.

  3. One of the realities of life is that what we consider historical fact is often reflective of contemporary politics rather than historical reality.

    The grim reality of 20th century Ireland is that we as a people knew what was happening in Mother and Baby Homes, etc, be they public, religious or otherwise.

    We may wish to try and place all blame on the Catholic Church nowadays, but for people to claim they were unaware of what was happening is simply false.

    Depending upon one’s age, perhaps your parents, for sure your grandparents and great-grandparents, they knew what was happening.

  8. The harrowing thing about these sort of stories is that they’re not uncommon. I’m in my late 30’s and growing up I had friends who were told they’ve other siblings out there somewhere. I’ve an adopted cousin who was taken in by my aunt and uncle because the mother abandoned her kids and people on the street just took the kids in. I’ve also got a cousin out there who was adopted after my uncle got a girl pregnant and her parents sent her away. I think we all know of someone who was affected.

  9. My own father could have been one-off those kids only for his grand parents. Born in the 1930s, raised by his grandparents with his sister it was only when he was in his mid 50s and the last remaining uncle died he found out his sister was actually his mother.

    Edit: is grand parents lived ip the street from onenof the laundry places. So they knew what was going on of she went on there. They sent her ro England for a whole the she came back. . Ive only recently located her family plot and as I understand it the burial record from the cemetery shows she’s buried somewhere in there but not what plot. I believe she’s in with her father and mother but can’t be sure.

  12. CHILDREN (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1957.
    ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
    Section
    1.
    Interpretation.
    2.
    Notices to be given by persons receiving children for reward.
    3.
    Notice to be given by persons arranging for employment of children.
    4.
    Amendment of section 12 of Principal Act.
    5.
    Discharge of child committed to industrial school.
    6.
    Leave of absence from certified school.
    7.
    Contributions out of voted moneys.
    8.
    Contributions by local authority in respect of periods of absence from certified school.
    9.
    Amendment of section 75 of Principal Act.
    10.
    Amendment of section 118 of Principal Act.
    11.
    Repeals.
    12.
    Short title and collective citation.
    SCHEDULE.
    Enactments Repealed
    Act Referred to
    Adoption Act, 1952
    No. 25 of 1952
    /static/images/base/harp.jpg
    Number 28 of 1957.
    CHILDREN (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1957.
    AN ACT TO AMEND AND EXTEND THE CHILDREN ACTS, 1908 TO 1949. [17th December, 1957.]
    BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—
    Interpretation.
    1.—(1) In this Act “the Principal Act” means the Children Act, 1908, as amended by subsequent enactments.
    (2) This Act shall be construed as one with the Principal Act.
    Notices to be given by persons receiving children for reward.
    2.—(1) Where a person undertakes, for reward or promise of reward, the nursing and maintenance of one or more children under the age of sixteen years apart from their parents or having no parents, he shall, at least seven days before the reception of any such child, give notice in writing thereof to the health authority.
    (2) Where a person or body makes arrangements for the nursing and maintenance for reward of any such child by another person, that person or body shall, at least seven days before the reception of the child, give notice in writing thereof to the health authority. This requirement shall not relieve the person receiving the child from the obligation of complying with subsection (1).
    (3) Where a person undertakes, for reward or promise of reward, the nursing and maintenance of a child under the said age already in his care without reward, the entering into the undertaking shall, for the purposes of Part I of the Principal Act, be treated as a reception of the child, but in such case the notice required by subsection (1) may be given at any time before or within forty-eight hours after such reception.
    (4) The notice shall state the name, sex, and date and place of birth of the child, the name of the person receiving the child, and the dwelling within which the child is about to be or is being kept, and the name and address of the person from whom the child is about to be or has been received.
    (5) (a) If a person who has undertaken the nursing and maintenance of any such child changes his residence, he shall, at least forty-eight hours before making such change, give to the health authority notice in writing of such change, and where the residence to which he moves is situate in the district of another health authority, he shall give to that health authority the like notice as respects each child in his care as he is by this section required to give on the first reception of the child.
    (b) Where, however, such change of residence is made suddenly by necessity arising from an unforeseen emergency, the notices required by this subsection may be given at any time within forty-eight hours after such change of residence.
    (6) (a) If any such child dies or is removed from the care of the person who has undertaken its nursing and maintenance, that person shall, within twenty-four hours after such death or at least forty-eight hours before such removal (as the case may be), give to the health authority notice in writing of such death or removal, and in the latter case also of the name and address of the person to whose care the child is about to be transferred.
    (b) Where, however, such removal is made suddenly by necessity arising from an unforeseen emergency, the notice may be given at any time within twenty-four hours after such removal.
    (7) This section shall apply to an individual undertaking the nursing and maintenance of an illegitimate child without reward and to the making of arrangements for such nursing and maintenance as it applies in relation to nursing and maintenance for reward.
    (8) If any person required to give a notice under this section fails to give the notice within the time or before the latest time specified for giving the notice, he shall be guilty of an offence under Part I of the Principal Act, and, if the child in respect of whom notice ought to have been given was a child the consideration for whose nursing and maintenance consisted in whole or in part of a lump sum, the person failing to give the notice shall, in addition to any other penalty under Part I of the Principal Act, be liable to forfeit that sum or such less sum as the court having cognizance of the case may deem just, and the sum forfeited shall be applied for the benefit of the child in such manner as the court may direct, and where any such sum is ordered to be forfeited the order may be enforced as if it were an order of the court made on complaint.
    (9) For the purpose of any enactment by which the time for taking proceedings is limited, the offence created by subsection (8) of failing to give a notice shall be deemed to continue so long as the child in respect of whom such notice ought to have been given remains, without such notice being given, in the care of the person by whom such notice ought to have been given.
    (10) Where a child who is illegitimate is kept and maintained in such circumstances that the notices mentioned in this section would be required to be given if such keeping and maintenance were done for reward, the child shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed, until the contrary is proved, to be so kept and maintained for reward.
    (11) References in Part I of the Principal Act to infants shall, in consequence of the foregoing provisions, be construed as references to children under the age of sixteen years.
    (12) This section is in lieu of section 1 of the Principal Act, as amended by section 3 of the Act of 1934, which sections are repealed by this Act and references in the Principal Act to the said section 1 shall be construed as references to this section.
    Notice to be given by persons arranging for employment of children.
    3.—(1) In this section “relative” means parent, grandparent, brother, sister, uncle or aunt, whether of the whole blood, of the half-blood or by affinity.
    (2) In deducing any relationship for the purposes of this section a child adopted under the Adoption Act, 1952 (No. 25 of 1952) shall be considered the legitimate offspring of the adopter or adopters.
    (3) Where any body or person (not being a relative of the child) having custody of a child under the age of eighteen years makes an arrangement for the employment of the child in circumstances which require the child to reside elsewhere than in the house where he normally resided before the commencement of the employment, that body or person shall, at least seven days before the commencement of the employment, give notice of the arrangement and of the proposed place of residence of the child to the health authority in whose functional area the child is to be employed.
    (4) Where the body or person making the arrangement is not within the jurisdiction of the State, the prospective employer of the child shall give similar notice to the appropriate authority.
    (5) A health authority shall, in relation to every child under the age of eighteen years in respect of whom notice under this section is required to be given, have the same functions and powers as they have under Part I of the Principal Act.

  14. A girl/woman who fell pregnant outside marriage was damaged goods in those days. The ostracization of these women was demanded by the Irish people and enforced by the Church and the State.

    The fathers were largely protected by their families, almost always excused by pointing out that the woman was a slut and no “normal” man could resist such behaviour.

    Make no mistake, the treatment of unmarried mothers in Ireland back then was the express, explicit wish of the Irish people. We just didn’t want those “harlots” around.

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