{"id":109933,"date":"2025-10-08T23:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T23:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/109933\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T23:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T23:58:07","slug":"man-asks-court-to-compel-state-to-locate-daughter-abducted-by-wife-in-poland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/109933\/","title":{"rendered":"Man asks court to compel State to locate daughter \u2018abducted\u2019 by wife in Poland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">A father has accused the State of abandoning the rights of the most vulnerable members of our society amid a claim his wife \u201cabducted\u201d their daughter and took her to Poland without his consent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The man is seeking orders directing the State to take immediate action to assist in the return of his child.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">The child\u2019s mother took her to Poland, the mother\u2019s homeland, without the father\u2019s consent and he has been unable to find her despite a Polish court order that the child be returned to Ireland. That order is being appealed by the children\u2019s ombudsman in Poland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">The parents had been in a dispute over the mother\u2019s claim that the three-year-old would receive better medical treatment in Poland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">At the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/high-court\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/high-court\/\">High Court <\/a>on Wednesday, the man sought a motion from the court to compel the State to act for the return of the child.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He told Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty that he had been forcibly separated from his daughter for 586 days and that it was his fifth time appearing in an Irish court regarding the girl\u2019s return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">He has taken the action against the Taoiseach, the Minister for Justice and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. He told Ms Justice Gearty the situation should not be allowed to continue and accused the Irish Government of \u201cdirect incompetence\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe Department of Justice, in the shape of the Central Authority [for Child Abduction] has buried its head in the sand and abandoned the rights of the most vulnerable members of our society \u2013 a young child,\u201d he said, adding that the State was \u201cmerely a post box and does not uphold the rights afforded to me and my daughter under the Constitution of Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/crime-law\/courts\/2025\/08\/05\/irish-man-claims-state-has-abandoned-his-child-in-poland-court-filings-show\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Irish man claims State has \u2018abandoned\u2019 his child in Poland, court filings showOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">He accused the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/department-of-foreign-affairs\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/department-of-foreign-affairs\/\">Department of Foreign Affairs<\/a> of displaying \u201cutter weakness and abdication in the face of a foreign state seizing one of its children and trampling over a father\u2019s rights\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He further submitted to the court that the Polish ombudsman had \u201cengaged in state-sponsored child abduction\u201d and that it had \u201cinsulated my wife from the effect of law\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said that he has been in possession of a valid return order for the child since last May and had made 11 attempts in Poland to locate and collect his child but she was \u201cnowhere to be found\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The man claims the Irish State sought to \u201ckick out\u201d his case and seek their costs against his action, a situation he described as \u201cdisgusting\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">\u201cShame on you all,\u201d he submitted. \u201cI ask the court to direct the State to take all reasonable steps \u2013 diplomatic, legal and practical \u2013 to locate her and bring her home.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ms Justice Gearty said the matter was \u201cextremely sensitive\u201d, that it was an \u201cappalling situation\u201d for the man, adding that it was an \u201cespecially poignant\u201d case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Clare O\u2019Shea, barrister for the State, said the State had sympathy for the man and that the departments of Justice and Foreign Affairs had been involved with \u201cvarious engagements\u201d in the matter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">\u201cWe are very conscious that this case concerns a minor,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Ms Justice Gearty fixed a date later this month for a full hearing in the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A father has accused the State of abandoning the rights of the most vulnerable members of our society&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,13169,8104,18,13,14,6,10476,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-109933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-department-of-justice","11":"tag-department-of-foreign-affairs","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-high-court","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}