Cork councillor adopted from mother and baby home reunited with birth parents and six siblings
Dominic Finn (right) deputising for the Mayor of the County of Cork and Jessica Bonenfant looking at an artwork by Matt Ind in the kitchen at Fota House. 'From the very beginning, I always knew that I was adopted,' says Dominic.
A county councillor and assistant school principal has described his incredible journey after being adopted from a mother and baby home.
He initially thought he was a Cork man, but was actually a Dub, he has been ‘baptised’ three times and now some extraordinary quirks of fate have led him to meet his birth parents and six siblings.
Dominic Finn was born on September 10, 1975, and a few months later was adopted by “the most caring parents”, Mary and Brendan Finn, who lived in West View, Cobh, Co Cork.
“From the very beginning, I always knew that I was adopted," said Dominic.
"I was the eldest of four children (in the Finn family) who were all adopted as well. I grew up with friends who were also adopted, so therefore being adopted was quite acceptable to me at the time. I never had any issues with it."
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He said he recalls at various times throughout his early life that a birth cert would have been required for different things such as applications. But he never had one, though his adoptive parents were issued with a baptismal cert showing he was baptised in the Lough Presbytery in Cork on September 19, 1975.
Dominic said he is very grateful for “a wonderful upbringing”, going through primary and secondary school in Cobh. He subsequently won a music scholarship to St Finian’s College, Mullingar and then went onto UCC where he studied arts/music and is now a respected teacher in Coláiste Muire, Cobh.
“Over the years, on occasion I would wonder where I came from, why I was adopted and what was the story with my parents. This, however, never affected me, and I got on with my life as normal.
"As the years went on, my three other adopted siblings all went down the route of tracing their families. This didn’t bother me at the time. They all had different outcomes with their own stories,” he said.
“I went on to get married to my beautiful wife, Cheralyn, in 2002 and we planned for a fantastic life together. The first time I really stopped to think about being adopted was when we were expecting our first child.
"Meeting the consultant for the first time, he asked for medical history. The problem was, I had no medical history. It felt like a waiting game to make sure our children would all be healthy and without any complications,” Dominic said.
He said life went on and couldn’t have been any better for himself, Cheralyn, and their children Aled, Ethan, Megan and Abbie.
“Then came 2019, and for some reason I said to myself, ‘Right, I am going to phone the national adoption service in Glanmire, Cork and ask to see if I can get any medical information at all’. I made the call and spoke to a guy.
"I gave him my name, date of birth and told him that I was baptised in the Lough Presbytery in Cork. That is all I could tell him. He informed me that he would check to see if my file was there as many had been destroyed.”
Dominic said a few weeks went by and then he got a call to say they had found his file and would be happy for him to call up to meet with them.
“In I went with my baptismal certificate only to be told that I was born in Holles St, Dublin, and baptised on September 9, 1975, at St John’s Parish, Blackrock, Dublin.
I was told that it was very common in those days for St Anne’s Adoption Society to issue baptismal certs. They were based in the Lough Church, Cork. The purpose was to make things easier when I was getting my Holy Communion and Confirmation. If I had my original birth cert then my birth mother’s name would be on it,” Dominic said.
“I asked if there was anything else I could be told so I was given my ‘feeding chart’ from when I was born. On the top of the sheet it said ‘St Patrick's Infant Hospital, Temple Hill, Blackrock, Dublin.
"I was told that, after I was born I was put into care in this infant hospital and then transferred down to Bessborough in Cork.
He said:
Dominic was informed that when his biological parents handed him over, they were told his adopting parents were in the room next door waiting to take him away, which wasn’t the case.
“I also said at this meeting that I remember my parents in Cobh telling me that the only information passed to them was that my birth father was a carpenter. I asked if this was the case, but due to GDPR, they couldn’t confirm this.
"And that’s where it ended. There was no further information for me due to GDPR even though everything was inside a folder on the table right in front of me.
"I asked what happens next, and they told me I could put my name down on the list for a search for parents, but it would be roughly four years before they got to me. I said grand, throw my name down and thought no more of it,” Dominic said.
He said he remembers going home to tell the news he’d just received, and his family couldn’t believe that he was actually born in Dublin.
“They were calling me ‘a Dub’ in a very light-hearted way. We also joked about the fact that I was baptised three times — in The Lough, Cork in Dublin, and Cobh.”
When covid struck in 2020 Dominic was forced, like all teachers, to tutor his pupils from home. When he was doing some prep work one night in May that year, he describes for some strange reason pulling out the feeding chart from St Patrick’s Infant Hospital in Temple Hill.
“So, I googled it. What did I find but an old newspaper article about the place, and where a young nurse was interviewed, and guess what, she was from Cobh, my same hometown. I knew the family, so I immediately made contact with one of them and she put me in touch with the nurse who cared for me back in 1975.”
He chatted with the nurse, who he named as Cathy, who he said was a great help.
Dominic said: “I told her that the adoption office in Glanmire had all my information. She helped me further with the help of another person. Very quickly, emails were flying back and forth between myself, Glanmire and Dublin.
"Then, on June 15 at 12.46am, while I was shopping with my wife in Dunnes Stores, Bishopstown, I received an email with the following…’I found him. Andrew Doyle (Dominic’s real name). (file) SPG 10106 No items for him unfortunately.’”
Doyle was his mother’s maiden name.
“That was all it said. I replied and asked was this my birth name? I was told that it was an error and delete the whole email. I looked at my wife and she joked saying ‘you don’t look like an Andrew’. A strange feeling came over me for the rest of the day. A lot of thinking and wondering what just happened there.”
The following morning, Dominic got a call from the adoption service in Glanmire to tell him that it was actually his real birth name. He was born Andrew Doyle.
“I was asked not to rush into anything too quickly, and that a social worker would be in touch soon. Shortly after that, a social worker made contact and told me that she would start doing a search for my parents.
"She met with me in August and explained everything and also that I should prepare for any outcome. I was fine with that,” Dominic said.
The search started and then on Monday, October 12, 2020, he received this from the social worker: "Hi Dominic, I hope you are well. Can you give me a call when you get this e-mail... I have some good news! I sent off another letter at the end of last week and I had a response this morning .. a positive one!"
“I was teaching at the time so the minute I was free I made that call. The social worker told me that she had made contact with my parents and spoke to them on the phone that lunchtime. She told me to sit down.
"She told me that after they gave me up for adoption, they stayed together. Their names were Ann and John,” he said.
Dominic readily admits that he was glad he was sitting down at the time as this was huge news.
“I was only given first names at this stage, and no indication as to where they were from. The only issue at this stage was that my (birth) parents didn’t tell anyone that they gave a child up for adoption. Not even my birth siblings knew I existed.
"I remained being calm but extremely excited with this news. I tried phoning my wife immediately and told my children the news. Of course I was updating them every step of the way,” he said.
Dominic said his biological parents then set about calling around to their children one by one, telling each of them in turn that they had an older brother.
“I’m a very practical and patient person so I didn’t want to rush things.”
A plan was put in place where they exchanged a letter each, then photos. Dominic was told they were from a lovely village outside Mullingar, with a lovely green in the centre, a nursing home, and a funeral home too.
“I was told that my parents were just after attending a funeral there that week. What did we do but searched google maps, searched RIP.ie to see would we find somewhere outside Mullingar where there was a green in the middle, where a funeral took place the previous week, and where condolences contained some of those names.
"Low and behold, Cher (wife Cheralyn) tracked them down. They were from Tyrrellspass, Co. Westmeath.”
Having gone to school in Mullingar in 1990, Dominic had passed through Tyrrellspass every time he went home, never knowing that his birth family were there living on the main street.
They finally arranged to meet up in St Stephens Hospital, Glanmire, where the adoption agency is based, because there were no hotels open due to covid and it was large enough for appropriate social spacing.
He said it was a great occasion, and he had told his wife in advance of the gathering it would probably take an hour. In the end it lasted more than five.
"My wife then joined us, and within 20 minutes, Cher had nearly all my medical history sorted."
The following week, Dominic and his wife travelled to meet his siblings, and then after that, brought their own children up to meet the family along with 21 newly acquired cousins.
“My birth parents then came down to Cobh to meet my (adoptive) father, Brendan, there. My mother, Mary, passed away in 2006 so it was a pity they didn’t get to meet her.
"My birth parents thanked my dad for the fantastic upbringing they gave me, something that they said they could not have done back in the day,” Dominic said.
He said:
Since then, the relationships have grown, and the Co Westmeath contingent love coming down to Cobh.
“We make regular trips to see everyone up in Tyrrellspass when we can. Unfortunately, my birth father, John, passed away in 2024. It meant a lot for him to meet me before he passed away. I have no doubt that he is at ease now as we continue to strengthen the bonds between Cobh and Tyrrellspass,” Dominic said.
“I consider myself one of the lucky ones where I had a good outcome. My heart goes out to all those who didn’t have a good outcome."
Extraordinarily, out of the 55 councillors representing Co Cork, three of them were Bessborough adoptees.
Mayor of County Cork Independent councillor Mary Linehan-Foley was the first to tell her story a few years ago.
At a recent meeting in County Hall the issue of Bessborough came up for discussion at which juncture Mr Finn, a Fianna Fáil councillor, said that he was also in Bessborough, but didn’t reveal the full story which he has now done.
Another councillor, Fine Gael’s Marie O’Sullivan said she was also there but didn’t elaborate much further. All three have found success with Ms O’Sullivan running a very popular restaurant in Kinsale.
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