Government under pressure to launch inquiry into illegal birth registrations

The report was commissioned in 2019, following evidence of illegal birth registrations in the files of the St Patrick’s Guild adoption society. File picture

Pressure is mounting on the Government to launch a full State inquiry after potentially 20,000 suspicious cases of illegal birth registrations were discovered.

The independent review commissioned by the Government has found "suspicious" markers and phrases in a sample of records it has examined which leads it to believe records were falsified when infants were adopted.

The review advises against a full Government inquiry, noting it could cause more trauma to adopted people. 

However, the Government has not ruled out an inquiry, while adoption rights campaigners are demanding a hand-search of all files.

The agencies involved included adoption societies, nursing homes, and boarded-out records. 

Tusla and the Adoption Authority of Ireland separately examined a sample of 1,496 records from more than 30 agencies in respect of 1,493 children. 

The report was commissioned in 2019, following evidence of illegal birth registrations in the files of the St Patrick’s Guild adoption society.

The Irish Examiner has highlighted the issue of illegal birth registrations since 2010.

How the 'Irish Examiner' has covered the scandal of illegal birth registrations since 2010. 

The review cannot provide proof of illegal practices; rather it highlights the potential for illegality in relation to the registering of birth records and sought out "markers" or "suspicious wording" on birth records that could potentially identify them as false.

Adoption campaigners have repeatedly said that the review would be largely cosmetic in nature if it was confined to searching for markers rather than a forensic examination of records.

They have also stressed that — as illegal registrations were usually carried out to circumvent adoption law — it is unlikely that adoption agencies signposted that fact using markers or labels in any systematic way.

The Adoption Authority of Ireland sampled 452 case files, stating that "a range of markers, or deemed suspicious, by those reviewing records was found in 89 of the 452 records examined". 

If this finding were extrapolated to the total number of records (4,359) it would represent up to 1,080 records, indicating a potential for illegality in relation to the registrations of births.

Tusla conducted a review of records across 30 agencies.

Tusla holds 70,000 records in respect of former adoption societies, mother and baby homes, and boarded-out records which were deemed pertinent to the review. A sample was selected of 1,082 records, just over 1.5%.

A total of 176 terms or suggestive markers were identified. If the number of records that contained wording that Tusla deemed as suspicious was extrapolated to its 70,000 records, this would be in the region of 12,040 cases — and potentially 18,900 records.

The findings stated the practice was most prevalent in the 1950s-1970s and reduced through the 1980s and 1990s. After 1994, no markers were identified.

The review said the motivation for the falsified adoptions in the 1950s was "the desire to protect young mothers from the censure of society and its epitaph of ‘being fallen women’ who had conceived 'in sin' and their children from the taint associated with illegitimacy."

The report recommends the State ensure that birth records are corrected and "the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill 2016 is amended and enacted to provide adopted persons, and those affected by illegal/incorrect birth registration with the right to access information relating to their births".

Children's Minister Roderic O’Gorman has asked the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, Professor Conor O’Mahony, to examine the review and set out the next steps for the Government.

Call for further inquiry

Maree Ryan-O'Brien, founder of adoptee identity rights group Aitheantas, has said a further inquiry is required.

She said a thorough hand-search across files is the only way a full picture of the issue can be drawn, adding that this review mirrors what happened in the recent commission of inquiry where, she said, due to a limited remit, the result is also limited.

"There's clear evidence that this happened; we have first-hand testimony that this was widespread," she said.

They need to go through every file. It is the least that adoptees deserve, it's a basic human right to know your place in the world.

"We can't keep dealing with this on a piecemeal basis. We need to face up to this. Taking half the medicine won't cure anything."

Ms Ryan-O'Brien said people who are tracing and looking for information tell her organisation that the shame is still very much alive and if it is not tackled at source, it will perpetuate.

"Our history is incomplete, we only have part of the story."