Joan Burton happy to take the reins as Labour leader

FROM adoption as a toddler to elevation to the office of Tánaiste at the age most people retire, Joan Burton’s life has been shaped by a remarkable ability to overcome the odds.

Born to an unmarried mother from rural Carlow in the chill winter of February 1949, the icy cold societal prejudice of the time saw the baby put up for adoption to an American couple, but after that fell through she was welcomed into a boisterous, closely-knit working class family in inner city Dublin.

“I always knew I was adopted. I went to the Burtons at two and a half and was formally adopted at four.