Clodagh Finn: What it was like meeting my birth father for the first time, aged 26

Many years ago, Clodagh Finn wrote a paragraph on what it was like meeting her birth father for the first time, aged 26. She felt at the time that she would not have been able to write any more. Until now

Protesters hang baby shoes by Áras an Uachtaráin to highlight their opposition to the sealing of records into the Tuam mother and baby home scandal.

Oh, the wonderful, messy humanity of it. That’s what I remember most about meeting my birth father for the first time, aged 26. There was gushing conversation followed by misty-eyed silence and then the really awkward goodbye. He swept me right off the ground and gave me a big sloppy kiss.

When I stepped into a taxi afterwards, the driver swung his big brass neck around and, with comic exaggeration, asked: “And who was that?”. I couldn’t but admire the cheek, so I gave him a straight answer: “That was my father — and it’s the first time we met.”