War reporter Adie seeks to solve mystery of Irish father

Like many children born during “the enormous upheaval of war”, as she put it herself, former BBC chief news correspondent Kate Adie was the by-product of a love affair, which led to her birth mother, Babe Dunnett, being forced to give her up for adoption.

While Ms Adie ultimately developed a loving relationship with her birth mother, who died last year aged 94, what became of her father, a Waterford man named John Kelly, remains a mystery.

Seeking to glean further information about her father, “whose name in Ireland is, I realise, as common as John Smith is in England”, Ms Adie has chosen to speak publicly about her ongoing search for John Kelly.