Irish babies adopted in US faced ‘lottery’ of heartache

Irish children adopted by rich American families in the 50s and 60s have spoken of their harrowing Stateside childhoods in a new BBC documentary.

In the wake of Philomena, Martin Sixsmith — the journalist who wrote the book on which the Oscar-nominated film was based — decided to probe further into the Church’s role in an adoption trade which saw an estimated 2,000 illegitimate children taken from their mothers and sent abroad.

The BBC Two documentary, Ireland’s Lost Babies, sees Mr Sixsmith criss-crossing the US discovering evidence that prospective parents were not properly vetted by the Church.