Battle over illegal adoption set for High Court

A mother and son separated through an illegal adoption from St Patrick’s Guild will end a four-year battle with the State and the guild in the High Court next month.

In 1961, at the age of 20, Englishwoman Tressa Reeves became pregnant and was sent to Dublin by her parents to enable the birth to be hidden from relatives and for the child to be placed for adoption.

She baptised her son alone in a room of the Dublin nursing home she was staying in. He was placed in the care of St Patrick’s Guild adoption agency. She signed consent forms which would allow for her son to be legally adopted with all proper safeguards that that would entail.