My father is under a headstone with an incorrect name
He explained that his father was still living in Cork.
But my happiness at this news was short-lived as he explained that his father had a brother named William Christopher O'Driscoll (born 17/12/1919). However, William Christopher lived all his life in Cork and, unlike my father, was never in an institution.
It appears my father was given, and relied all his adult life upon, an incorrect date of birth and the birth certificate obtained for him was for this other William Christopher O'Driscoll.
I have also discovered that my father was placed in Greenmount Industrial School in Cork.
Their records show he was William O'Driscoll (no Christopher) and his date of birth was 25/11/1919.
He was placed in Greenmount by a court order on March 26, 1927, when he was seven-years-old. He was charged with 'wandering.'
The court was told that his father was dead and his mother's address was unknown. He was in the care of his grandmother and the address given was 36, Hanover Street, Cork.
The records do not have any parents' names or grandmothers' names. My father was ordered to be detained until aged 16 when he was sent to a farm in Ballyknockin. No record of my father's hospitalisation was found. I do not know how he came to have the incorrect date of birth.
Imagine how devastating this has been for me and my family. My father is buried under a headstone with an incorrect name; his marriage and birth certificates have an incorrect name and date of birth, and we have named our children after a family that isn't ours.
We were aware that my father had a very difficult time in the orphanage and that he had been treated cruelly.
However, I have only recently discovered the extent of this abuse. My mother knew, but my father could not talk about it to his children. I am kept awake at night thinking of him.
He isn't here for me to tell him not to be ashamed about his time at Greenmount; he is not here for me to hold his hand and tell him how proud I am of him. He never laid a finger on us and, as the father of seven children, we often tested his patience.
His dearest wish was to discover his family and find out if he had any brothers and sisters. However, my search is meeting many obstacles. I am appalled that innocent children could be kept for nine years and longer without any records of parents or family.
No social services department was involved and no medical checks were made on the children. No health board records.
I have contacted every agency I can think of for information. The problem is that the records are spread about various agencies and departments yet the Government knew that people would need these records in order to claim redress.
The Department of Education and Science does not hold any records for Greenmount prior to July, 1942, yet the Presentation Brothers held my father's records. Why did the department not hold a copy?
The Association for Protection of Children were involved in my father being put before the court, yet the ISPCC state they have no trace of any records on their database.
Why not? Have other people in the same position been able to access records from them? Why has the Department of Education not discussed access to records with them.
This brings me to Barnardo's origins service to which I was directed by Education Minister Noel Dempsey.
In his letter he told me this service could arrange face-to-face counselling for ex-residents of these institutions and they also could undertake tracing family.
Commendable except that I had already contacted Barnardo's four months ago. They said they could not act for me as their service agreement only involved living survivors of the institutions, and my father was dead.
I have written to Mr Dempsey again to explain that my father cannot take up the offer of counselling as he is dead and to ask them to review their service agreement but still I await a reply.
While the abuse of children in industrial schools has been in the spotlight in Ireland for the last few years, I only became aware of the institutional redress process when I began my search for my father's family.
It is too late for my father to go before the commission to tell his story.
However, I feel the only way he can rest in peace is to discover who he was. Everyone has this basic right and the only way it can be achieved is to make all records open and accessible.
I cannot believe I am the only person searching for information on a late parent. I am sorry my father isn't here to recount his story to the commission or to receive some kind of redress.
However, I am thankful he did not live to discover that the family he thought was his, the mother and father he always wished for, belonged to someone else.
Margaret Eaton,
36, Rochdale Lane,
Heywood,
Lancashire,
England.
