Imagine if you will, waking up one morning to find to find that you are not the person you believed yourself to be your whole life. No, this is not a Rod Serling moment and you have not entered the Twilight Zone. You were not part of a Witness Protection Program, you are a Legal Fiction created by a Court of Law.
Many people don’t have to imagine it, they have lived it through no choice of their own by virtue of the fact they were Adopted. I apologise to Adoptee’s if I have not captured the spirit of how adopted people feel, I was raised by my birth parents and cannot begin to comprehend their struggle. I would highly recommend a best-selling book written by the former Chairman of the Mother & Babies Homes Committe Paul Jude Redmond, a sad and frightening account of what actually occurred in his book the Adoption Machine.
I have however, tried to understand their perspective ever since I read Nancy Verrier‘s excellent book The Primal Wound many years ago. I wrote in my own book on the topic of Adoption so I wont repeat what I have already said.
I have the benefit of being able to recite to my doctor, my entire family history, which diseases or conditions my DNA is prone to. I can trace my family history back 800 years on both sides. I can proudly say that nobody in my family is a mass murderer, a member of royalty, an evil person or anyone of note. I place a high value on knowing who I am and where I came from, I would imagine that most readers here will feel the same.
I ask readers to place themselves in the position of Adoptees, many now older, who have spend their entire life living as a “Legal Fiction” being denied the right to their identity, a right enshrined in law.
While politicians use Adoptees as political fodder to bash their opposition, while haters of the Catholic Church revel in bashing Nuns and Priests, while ordinary members of the public post and tweet sad emogies, we are forgetting a whole cohort of our brothers and sisters are no further today than they were before the much anticipated report, which does nothing to ease their pain.
In fact, the government have introduced illegal legislation to ensure many if not most of the victims will go their graves not knowing their true identity. Not only that, but they gave Tusla, the most secretive, dysfunctional, unaccountable State Agency with a history of denying FOI requests, the job of Contract Tracing. Many of these people are old enough to need a Zimmerframe have sought their family for years, only to be denied at every opportunity by the Church, but especially by successive governments. What are they tring to hide?
I would strongly urge the Irish Public to put away your faux outrage and turn your attention to the victims of Forced Adoption. In Irish Law, the primacy of Children’s Rights over Parents Right has long been established. Under Human Rights Law, every Human Being has an Imprescriptible and Inalienable Right to their Identity and a Family Life. The Irish Government are denying our fellow citizens and THIS should be the focus of your outrage.
I will leave you with a happy story. I was overjoyed yesterday to find that the birth father of an adoptee, a woman I greatly admire for helping fellow victims, had made contact with her.
Joe
Secret Courts Blog 