Son launches social media search for father’s family
Andy Byrne’s father, Don, found out 23 years ago that his late mother and father were not his biological parents.
In the years since, his search to find his family has been impeded by many obstacles.
Now Andy, a graphic designer, has called upon social media users to share Don’s story and help in the search, having explored the traditional avenues.
“We kept hitting dead ends in our paper trail so I figured we should explore a different platform,” said Andy, from Knocklyon.
“I have seen how powerful social media can be in tracing missing people, etc, so we are essentially doing the same thing, albeit from 1943.”
Don is excited to use the power of social media in his search.
“Dad’s over the moon, giddy checking on Twitter every five minutes,” said Andy.
“I woke up to see he had retweeted my first tweet. He was the very first one to spread this search on himself.”
Andy and his father are hoping the new platform will allow Don to find answers to his past and discover his original identity.
“At 73 years of age my father still doesn’t know who he really is,” Andy’s appeal begins.
“For 50 years Don Byrne grew up believing that he was the biological son of Robert and Theresa Byrne.
“That was until 23 years ago.
“On her death bed, his aunt Hannah told him he was adopted. He was given no more information.
“After this revelation a DNA test confirmed that he was not related to his family.
“Since then, me and my siblings have been searching for more information on his adoption, but to no avail.
“Our search has been halted at every turn with brick walls, red tape, and continued pain. I’m telling this story, in the hope, that someone may be able to help in our search.
“Someone may be able to open doors to us. Someone who can give a 73 year old man a sense of belonging before it’s too late.
“It would mean so much to him to have the smallest bit of information. To find out where he comes from, what his real name is, or what his actual date of birth is.
“Please Share/Like/HashtagTweet/Insta/Email/SMS the life out of this appeal. The idea is to get talking about what happened on that day in Dublin in 1943.
“His name is Don Byrne. He’s 73 and he doesn’t know who he really is.”
If you can help Don and Andy in their search, please contact Andy on his Twitter page @andybyrne1980 or email me@andrewbyrne.ie. To assist online use hashtag #whoisdonbyrne.
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