Postcard reunites long lost siblings
THE two elderly brothers clasped each other’s hands as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
To an outsider, 81-year-old Ivan Rooney and his 64-year-old brother Douglas looked like lifelong friends. The reality is they met for the first time the day before.
Ivan, who will celebrate his 82nd birthday on December 16, was brought up by foster parents after his mother, Eileen Louisa, left Ireland’s shores for America when he was just two.
Ivan kept a dated postcard with a picture of the White Star Line’s SS Arabic that his mother had travelled on to the United States in May 1930. It was sent to his foster mother, Esther Alice Bell, in Dublin telling her that she had travelled on the vessel to New York.
The postcard read: “Dear Mrs Bell, This is the ship I travelled on. We are landing in Boston today and New York tomorrow. I will write when settled. Hope Ivan and all at number 19 are well as leaves me. Yours truly, E L Rooney.”
The postcard played a crucial role in helping Ivan find out he had a brother, Douglas Barnett, 64, in San Francisco and a sister, Eileen Sitnik, 71, in New York. The family was reunited this week.
Doug clasped Ivan’s hand throughout the interview. He said he and Eileen did not like the term half-brother and had stopped using it after arriving in Ireland.
“Ivan is our brother and we have just been blown away by the new family connection. I cannot keep from smiling.” said Doug.
Eileen said she felt very sad for her mother and for Ivan for all the lost years because of the situation they found themselves in.
“I am sure my mother through the years was heartbroken,” she said.
For years Ivan had kept the little information he had about his mother in an envelope that he kept in a box. “I was given the letters and postcard when I was just a young fellow.”
In October 2007 Ivan telephoned RTÉ’s Liveline to tell presenter, Joe Duffy, he had begun his search. His birth was registered in the Coombe Hospital on December 16, 1926. The certificate, however, had a lot of blank spaces on it. His mother’s name was on it, but not his father’s.
Ivan said a line had also been drawn across the space for his own name on the certificate. “I have no Christian name. Now I am 81 — so I have gone through life with a birth certificate that does not really identify me.”
While he had a happy life, he remained curious about his origins and from time to time took out the certificate and looked at it. Like the blank spaces on it, there were gaps in his life that he wanted to fill.
His wife of 55 years, Olive, with whom he had three children knew he always wanted to find his mother. Sadly, Olive suffered with her health and Ivan decided to put her first. She died in 2006.
The journey of discovery began with the postcard that is framed in Ivan’s sitting room. With the help of the name of the ship, he was able to trace the passenger list on the internet.
By tracing his mother’s family to Sligo, he obtained a copy of her birth certificate, confirming she was born on July 16, 1905.
His mother was 21 when he was born in the Coombe Hospital. After the birth, his mother went to the Magdaline Asylum (as it was then called) in Leeson Street. She left the refuge in August 1927, but Ivan stayed there until he was three when he was fostered.
Ivan’s daughter, Susan Rooney, who had been searching the internet, succeeded in getting a copy of her grandmother’s death certificate — she had died in 1992. Her death had been notified by Doug, her son. Ivan wrote to Doug, using the address on the certificate but when he got no reply, thought he was getting nowhere.
A friend then suggested that Ivan should use an agency. Barnardos succeeded in tracing Doug at a different address and arranged for Doug to telephone Ivan.
The woman from Barnardos also asked if Ivan was sitting down because she had more news. She told him that he also had a sister.
Eileen called Ivan immediately after he ended his telephone conversation with Doug. Eileen said she always thought her mother was not very good at keeping secrets until they heard from Ivan. “We were very surprised because she liked to share things,” she said.
Ivan said he also had the letter that his mother wrote to his foster mother in 1939 that was signed ‘E L Barnett’, so he knew she had married. She had, in fact, got married in 1935 to her husband, John, who predeceased her.
In the letter Ivan’s mother thanked his foster mother, who lived near the top of Dorset Street for looking after her son. She wrote she was glad that he had got a good education and hoped that he was doing well in school and would go on to get a good job.
Ivan said he was not angry at his mother and never doubted that she was a good person who only wanted the best for him in life.
“When I heard that Doug had found a photograph of me and a lock of hair in my mother’s possessions, I was bowled over. That vindicated my faith in her,” he said.
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