Adoptive mum Peggy: 'My doctor told me to give him back because he was brain damaged'

Margaret 'Peggy' O'Kelly adopted her son Karl, who has special needs, from St Patrick's Mother and Baby Home. Now 90, she says many adoptive parents like her had no idea what was happening inside the institutions, and were not 'rich or cruel' as depicted in some accounts 

Peggy O'Kelly and her son Karl whom she and her late husband adopted 60 years ago. Picture: Moya Nolan

Margaret 'Peggy' O'Kelly is 90 years old this year, and closer than ever to her son Karl, who she adopted from St Patrick's Mother and Baby Home in 1964 when he was seven weeks old.

She recalls a doctor telling her to give him back to the nuns, because he was "brain damaged".