A High Court judge has dismissed a father’s case alleging the Irish State failed to vindicate his daughter’s rights after she was unlawfully taken to Poland by her mother two years ago.
The man is in an “extremely distressing” situation, said Judge Conleth Bradley as he ruled upon what he described as among the “most difficult of cases”. The judge said the father was “at his wits’ ends” with concern for her welfare, and his attempts to bring her home to Ireland remain “thwarted”.
However, Bradley said, the court was “compelled” to dismiss his case against the Irish State, whose political and consular actions related to the girl have been in line with requirements.
The girl’s parents, who previously lived together in Ireland, have been locked in a legal battle for more than a year over where the girl should receive medical treatment. The court has heard she is autistic and has complex medical needs.
In January, the Polish supreme court upheld a ruling that the girl, who has dual Irish-Polish citizenship, should be returned to Ireland as her mother had left the State without the father’s consent. Despite this, the father claims, the authorities in Poland have failed to locate his daughter, who he has not seen since January 2025 in a Warsaw court.
He took a legal case against the Irish State alleging it failed to appropriately intervene in his daughter’s situation and failed to vindicate her interests as an Irish citizen. Representing himself, he claimed the State was bound – even beyond Irish borders – by articles of the Constitution protecting family life.
On Tuesday, Bradley noted an appeal has been taken against the father in Poland that has paused the effects of the order for his daughter’s return to Ireland.
The Irish case must be viewed in the context of various pieces of domestic and international law, including the Hague Convention, which sets out the route for return of abducted children to their country of habitual residence. Quoting from a judicial lecture, he said the Convention “cannot be construed differently in different jurisdictions”.
The court could not direct the Irish State to act in the manner sought by the father, Bradley held. The State has been providing consular and diplomatic assistance in this situation, said the judge, adding that he found no failure by the State to vindicate the girl’s rights.
The State has not acted in “disregard, still less in clear disregard, of the Constitution”, he said. It “seems plain” that the Constitution does not demand Irish constitutional standards be followed by other countries.