The State destroyed a woman’s family; her son pieced it back together again

Clodagh Finn talks to a prominent academic who overcame secrecy, bureaucracy, falsified documents and ‘bare-faced’ lies to discover his ‘lost’ aunts and uncles, in Ireland and abroad and, in some cases, introduce them to each other for the first time

Professor Thomas Garavan looking through documents collected as part of his search for his mother's siblings. Picture: Denis Minihane

Thomas Garavan, professor of leadership practice at University College Cork, was 12 years old before he found out his mother had a sister.

Just as he was getting to know his ‘new’ aunt, he found out he had a second aunt. And then, more than a decade later, in 1982, he discovered his mother had a third sister. And three brothers. None of them knew of each other’s existence.