Philomena Lee: ‘I can still see my son’s little face’

It isn’t every day that you see battle-hardened health professionals overcome with emotion, yet there were tears aplenty yesterday at University College Cork when Philomena Lee told the story of her 50-year search for her son.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Philomena said afterwards. “I was looking up at the audience and everywhere I looked was a sea of faces with tears streaming down their faces.”

Philomena was giving the keynote address to a conference on adoption held at the university’s Brookfield centre. Now living near London with her daughter, Jane Libberton, Philomena told how she never gave up the search for Anthony, who was taken from her at the age of three from the mother-and-baby home in Roscrea where he was born.