Latest news with #Philomena
RTÉ News
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
More than 100 MPs sign open letter backing Philomena's Law
More than 100 MPs and Peers in Westminster have signed an open letter backing legislation to help UK based survivors of Irish mother-and-baby homes access compensation. It comes ahead of the first Westminster debate on 'Philomena's Law' this afternoon. The legislation has been named after Philomena Lee, a mother and baby home survivor, whose story about her son being forcibly adopted was chronicled in the Oscar nominated film "Philomena". It's estimated that around 13,000 people living in the UK are mother and baby home survivors, however many risk losing their means-tested benefits if they avail of compensation under the Irish Mother and Baby Institution payments scheme. "Philomena's Law" was first introduced to the House of Commons by the chair of the UK Labour Party's Irish Society, Liam Conlon MP. "Our campaign has also been about shining a light on the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme itself. Uptake is incredibly low in Britain and we want to ensure that every eligible survivor knows about it and feels empowered to apply", he explained. The actor Steve Coogan, who starred in the film 'Philomena' has also expressed his support for the legislation. "Liam is doing fantastic work to raise awareness of this important issue and I'm backing 'Philomena's Law' to help him ensure that all survivors get the compensation they are rightfully due", he said. Irish actor and star of Derry Girls Siobhán McSweeney said that she "wholeheartedly" supports Philomena's Law, adding that "this legislation is a crucial step towards justice and dignity for those who have suffered in silence for far too long." The open letter has been signed by politicians from a number of parties, including Labour, DUP, UUP, SDLP, SNP, Sinn Féin, Liberal Democrats and Alliance. It states that: "This complicated and stressful situation is putting undue pressure on survivors who are currently making applications to the payment scheme, forcing them to revisit their most traumatic experiences as they weigh up the cost of accepting compensation."
Time of India
22-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
FoodTech Kerala expo showcases innovation in food processing and packaging
Kochi: "We never knew that powders of dried vegetables like carrot and beetroot were available in India, and this is a good means to introduce them to people," said George and Philomena, elderly couple from Vennala who visited the 16th edition of FoodTech Kerala exhibition, which began at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Ground in the city on Thursday. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Being state's premier exhibition of food processing and packaging technology, one of the standout features of this year's edition was the 104 stalls under Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) scheme, showcasing a diverse range of innovative products and services from Kerala's own food processing entrepreneurs. The diversity on display in the exhibition reflected Kerala's rich food heritage, including spices, pickles, traditional snacks, seafood products, ready-to-eat coconut chips and nutritional packs manufactured from regional produce. Ripe mango pickle and mushroom pickles were among the standout products. "We are receiving a great response from visitors, who are awed by the variety of jackfruit products. This is a great platform to bring the goodness of jackfruit to the wider populace," said Vijay Kumar from Golden Jack stall. Organized by Cruz Expos, a Kochi-based professional B2B event organizer, the three-day-long exhibition is supported by department of industries, ministry of food processing industry (MFPOI), Kerala Bureau of Industrial Promotion (KBIP) and Kerala Agricultural University (KAU). Officially inaugurating the expo, industries minister P Rajeeve emphasized govt's commitment to supporting MSMEs and startups in the sector. "Three years ago, Kerala's achievement in PMFME was 57% and we were in 12th position. Now, it has increased to 102% and Kerala is in 1st position," he said. HotelTech Kerala, state's premier exhibition for hospitality sector, focused on HORECA (hotels, resorts, restaurants and catering) sector, ran alongside FoodTech Kerala, with over 100 exhibitors displaying linen and furnishings, hotel and kitchen equipment. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Seminars by academic and industry experts marked the second half of the day's events. GM Conclave and Purchase Managers Meet, sponsored by Pune Gas, will be the highlight on Day 2 of HotelTech Kerala 2025. Kerala Barista Workshop (KBW), a five-day intensive workshop conducted by Coffee Board, Bengaluru, is also being held at Chavara Institute, Kochi, from May 20 to 24.
Irish Independent
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Around the Districts: Ballymote, Gurteen and Merville
Heritage Week 2025 Ballymote Tidy Towns invite you to get to know Ballymote Town Park from a different perspective that of volunteers, Ecologist Katie Neary and Horticulturist Mandy Ryan. We are hosting a free guided walk through on Sunday May, 25th starting at 6pm at the Sligo Road entrance to the park. Adults and accompanied children welcome, no dogs please. Free parking close by. Social Dance There will be a Social Dance in The Loftus Hall, Ballymote, Sunday 1st June, at the later time of 8.30pm-11.00pm. Music by Michael O Brien and Philomena. Please come and support. Admission €10. All welcome. fifty/fifty draw Ballymote GAA fifty/fifty draw has resumed and will be held every two weeks, congratulations to our latest winner, name of winner displayed locally check out our Facebook page for more details. Tickets can be purchased at Kelly's Supervalu on Saturday prior to Monday draw. Next draw Monday 26th May. Sympathy Sympathy is extended to the family, relatives and friends of Maura Higgins (née Scanlon) ,New York and formerly Carrigans Upper whose death occurred recently. First Holy Communion Congratulations to the children from Scoil Mhuire gan Smal and Knockminna National School who celebrated their First Holy Communion on Sunday 11th May in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Ballymote and Doo Church. Family Resource Centre A parent and toddler group meet at Ballymote Family Resource Centre every Wednesday from 10am-12pm. This group is free and everybody is welcome there is no need to book. Please call 071-9197818 for more information. Kids Movement Hub-A free six week movement class for kids aged 4-10 years commenced at Ballymote FRC on Tuesday, 29th of April class time 3.30-4.30pm. This class will be led by a qualified tutor. Please call Ballymote FRC on 071-9197818 to book a place. Karate classes for children are running at Ballymote FRC every Monday from 5.30pm–8pm. Please contact info@ for more details. Foroige run activities for children aged 10 upwards at Ballymote FRC, Friday afternoons. Please contact Rachel 086-1275225 for more details. Infinity Stage School for children is running at Ballymote FRC every Wednesday from 5.30-8pm. Please contact Amanda on 087-6740824 for more details. ADVERTISEMENT Adolescent counselling is available at Ballymote FRC. Contact solastherapysligo@ for more information. Country Night Country Night at the Coleman Music Centre with a wonderful line up of acts including Carmel Mc Loughlin, Gerry Guthrie, Effie Neill, Brian Kerrigan and Matt Curran. On Thursday, 29th May at 8pm. Tickets on sale 071 9182599 or visit notes Anyone who wishes to have news items included in the notes E-mail miriamsfinn@ phone 085 deadline for submission of notes is 5pm Thursday. GURTEEN Recent death The death took place on April 30 of Patrick Christopher Coleman, Knutsfield, Cheshire a native of Lisaballely, Gurteen. He was brother of the late Mary Igoe, James ( Jimmy) and Thady (Ted) Coleman. His Funeral Mass was on Wednesday May 28. in de Paul's, Knutsford. May he rest in Peace. Cemetery Mass The annual Killaraght New Cemetery Mass will be on on June 1 at 9.30pm-feast of the Ascension. First Holy Communion The First Holy Communion for Cloonloo two pupils was held in Cloonloo Church on last Saturday May 17 and the following day Sunday 18 for thirteen pupils in St. Patrick's Church, Gurteen at the 11.30am Mass. Eastern Harps Eastern Harps .50/50 draw held on Monday night May 12 was won by Mikey O'Grady,c/o O'Dowd's Lakeview Bar, Monsteraden who won €626. The Club are most grateful for all the support each week to assist with the running of the Club. Gurteen Celtic Gurteen Celtic jackpot of £2900 was not won on Sunday May 11 numbers drawn were -1, 11, 14, 18 and the €50 prize went to Marie Murphy, Kilfree. The Draw next week for € 3,000 for will be in O'Dowd's Monasteraden. The committee are most grateful for all support. Bingo Bingo is held every Friday night at 8pm in Gurteen Hall. Jackpot is at €2700 in forty seven calls and the lotto jackpot is €650. The committee are most thankful for all the support. Plgrimage to Lough Derg Achonry and Elphin dioceses' 3-day Pilgrimage to Lough Derg on Friday June13 to Sunday June 15. Contact Justin Harkin 087-6171526 see also Lough Derg Lough Derg One Day Retreates–May–Saturday 24 , Monday 26. Also, in August and September Quiet day–Friday 12 September The 3 day pilgrimages begin Friday 16 May. until Friday 15 August Residential Retreats–Monday 19 May and Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 July. See and to book essential, and 071-9861518. Coleman Music events On Thursday night May 29 there will be a Country night in the Coleman Music Centre featuring Carmel McLoughlin, Gerry Guthrie, Effie Neill, Brian Kerrigan and Matt Curran. This promises to be a great night and early booking is advised. Contact 071-9182599 or email MERVILLE CENTRE Condolences The Merville Management Committee, staff and on behalf of the wider Merville community wish to offer our condolences to the family and many friends of Dominic Fallon, 33 Martin Savage Terrace and formerly of Jink's Avenue, who has passed away recently. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. Pathway to employment Community Employment (CE) is a great option for those on a lower social welfare rate as it involves increased payment on to the higher CE rate, while providing work experience/training for 19.5 hours a week. New Qualification Rules came into force earlier this year so you may qualify especially if you are over 50 Years and Unemployed for over 12 Months. Community Employment vacancies are currently available for school age care (afternoons) and caretakers (evenings and weekends). No experience is necessary as full training will be provided. Get involved in working in your community while availing of career changing opportunities. Call 071 9150029 for further information. Dreamchasers Childcare Pre-enrolment spaces are now available for our award-winning community based pre-school service for the 2025/2026 term. With a focus on outdoor play, Dreamchasers Childcare Service has an established community centered programme for all children with an emphasis on fun being our number one priority. Free preschool places on the ECCE Scheme and Qualifying Supports such as the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) are available. Please contact 071-9152022 mobile 086-4424093 for further information. Safety matters All patrons of Merville Community Centre are asked to exercise caution when driving in the area when on drop off and pick up, as these times can be extremely busy both at the centre and in the locality. Best practice would be to drop off and pick up outside the centre where possible. Be especially aware of pedestrians crossing at the centre entrance and exit. Think safe! Pendant alarms Merville Community Centre facilitate on behalf of our Community the provision to eligible persons of Social Monitored Pendant Alarms, under the Seniors Alert Scheme that is administered by POBAL. Equipment Funding is available for eligible persons over 65 years for the installation of an monitored alarm on a landline in the person's home. The alarms are now available for persons aged 65 or older and living alone, living with another person who meets the terms and conditions, living alone for significant periods of time during the day, or is a carer to someone else in their household. First year monitoring is free for all new applicants. Subsequent annual monitoring charges are then payable by the user. Other systems are available at various costs for those who do not possess a landline. Overall this monitoring product adds peace of mind for both the users, family and friends at minimal cost. Contact Merville Centre Office at 071 9150029 for further information. Your notes
Irish Times
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Dara Ó Briain: ‘I always felt like the dumbest, ugliest person in the class'
Dara Ó Briain arrives into the west London restaurant he's chosen for our meeting a few minutes late and full of apologies. He was on the language app Duolingo and was doing quite well so didn't want to stop because he was getting extra points. The comedian is learning Spanish. It's one of his latest 'little passions'. Another of these endeavours is the quest to improve his swimming kick. He's a regular at his local pool in Chiswick. He's also struggling with his spin turn. 'The water goes in my mouth,' he says. 'I can't do it, so I'm hoping I can get on a late night show with Daniel Wiffen and get a consultation, ask him for tips.' We're here to talk about his latest stand-up show Re: Creation , which he's been touring in his beloved Vicar Street in Dublin and more recently across UK venues. He can't talk too much about a key aspect of the show – the search for his birth father – because it would spoil the story for audiences. His last show, So Where Were We?, was a sold-out post-pandemic chortlefest that also included a gripping final section about his search for his birth mother. Ó Briain first spoke about his adoption to this publication in 2021, during The Irish Times online Winter Nights Festival. Growing up in a stable, supportive family in Bray , Co Wicklow , he had always been told he was adopted but had somehow 'forgotten' about it until he was in his late 30s, when he became curious. It wasn't until he watched Philomena , Steve Coogan's movie about one woman's search for her adopted baby, that he decided to try to trace his biological roots. READ MORE So the last show was 'my version of Philomena, a young, scared woman makes a difficult decision in the 1970s and then there's a long arc to redemption, 50 years later, when the story resolves itself. The show had a lot of anger and some shocks about the way the Irish government treated women. There were revelations about the trafficking of babies. It brought the audience on a journey.' His search for his mother was driven not by an identity crisis but by a sense that 'there was a woman out there who was wondering how I turned out'. He says now that apart from some frustrating bureaucracy involving a tortuous search for his birth cert, his experience of tracing and eventually meeting his birth mother and three stepsiblings was as positive an experience as he could have hoped for. When he began the search for his genetic father, it took a while for his birth mother to provide the name of the man in question – understandably she was worried about dredging up a part of her past she had left behind. 'It was hard,' says Ó Briain. 'She had closed that chapter ... Her fear was that she was going to have to be involved. And when I told her, 'No, you don't have to deal with this at all', then it was easier.' The story of what happened next is, as one reviewer put it, 'gripping and gasp inducing ... it must have taken a full half minute for my jaw dropping to end'. But no, Ó Briain won't provide any more details. All he'll say is that if the last show was his Philomena, this show is his Elf, by which he means 'a broadly comic story about a man of a certain age and of some professional standing who opens the door one day to find a giant in a clown outfit, going 'Hello, Daddy'. To be clear, at 6ft 4in, Ó Briain is the giant clown in this equation. [ Dara Ó Briain reveals his quest for his birth mother: 'She said there was no choice in this' Opens in new window ] 'So it's just a great yarn, and it's quite different in tone to the last show. And part of it is the fact that he [his biological father] didn't know all of this had occurred and we're back to the way it was in Ireland at the time ... it's me basically contacting him and the story of what happened.' As you'd expect, he has reflected a lot on the experience of being adopted. He still doesn't know where he got his 'insanely mathsy' brain from – he studied maths and theoretical science at UCD – but nobody in either his adoptive or genetic family is that way inclined. He's thought a lot about nature versus nurture through the process and he believes nurture wins, giving credit for most of who he is 'to the people who put in the hard yards, the ones who did the parenting, no disrespect to my genetic family'. Dara Ó Briain: Since contacting his birth mother and father, he went from having one sibling to having seven. Photograph: Nicola Tree We take a break to order some food. Ó Briain orders a cheeseburger. 'I knew you were going to order that,' says the waitress. The comedian is not offended by the waitress thinking he looked like a man in need of a cheeseburger. He's been intermittent fasting for a while now, more conscious of his health in his 50s. 'I got too chunky in the last while, I need to watch it,' he says. He has lost 2½ stones. 'The thing is people don't notice when I've lost two stone, they start to notice at around 2½, three stone and then if I get down by 3½ they start telling me I don't look well.' At one point he lost three stones and his agent took one look at him and said 'No, no, no, no, no'. The swimming and fasting are both a way of life for him now. He tells me he doesn't talk to skinny people about this stuff, 'they can f**k off,' he laughs. As a nonskinny person, I'm honoured. In fairness, he doesn't talk to 'people with hair' about having none either. For 17 years, as presenter of Mock the Week on BBC, the show that made his name in Britain, he was slagged mercilessly by panellists for being 'big and bald'. He's as comfortable talking about his weight – to nonskinny people anyway – as he is about discussing the fact that he only has one testicle, which formed a fascinating part of the last show. Ó Briain is a busy man and not just with touring and TV appearances. Since contacting his birth mother and father, he went from having one sibling to having seven. 'I'm a man, I can't manage family at the best of times,' he says. 'Now I have willingly taken on a 600 per cent increase in family members and an almost uncountable number of cousins.' He says as with many adoption stories there's a 'mad flurry' at the start and then it settles into something else where he's found himself explaining to random cousins: 'Just so you know, even the woman I actually call Mammy doesn't hear from me as much as she'd like to'. 'I have had such a positive experience ... I wasn't invested emotionally the way that other people are. My own family basically carries that weight. So I stress a lot more about how often I talk to my daughter than I do about how often I talk to any of these people ... so that's more my focus. But this is just a nice extra thing.' Ó Briain has three teenagers with his wife, Susan, a surgeon. They feature in the latest show when he describes how his children are used to his nostalgic walking tours of Dublin. These tours are mostly him saying 'well, that's gone' about some landmark of his youth that's now disappeared. 'This is based on me driving past the old Jurys Hotel in Ballsbridge with a 13-year-old boy in the car going to see the family in Bray. We drove past Jurys and I was like, 'Oh my god, it's gone'. And he's looking at this space, this void wondering, 'How am I supposed to feel about this? I don't have memories of the Coffee Dock, of the aftermath of your debs, when you were sitting there in a tuxedo at half five in the morning trying to look sophisticated.' ' Dara Ó Briain: 'I'm a man, I can't manage family at the best of times.' Photograph: Nicola Tree It's not off the ground he licked these 'oh, that's gone' tours. His mother, when she first moved to Bray, lived in a house on the Boghall Road. The house was flattened and turned into a small parade of shops. A butcher's and a chemist and a chip shop. 'We'd occasionally drive up to the spot and she'd go, 'This is where I lived when I moved out of home and now it's all gone'. Then there'd be a long respectful pause until enough time had elapsed and we could ask, 'Can we have chips now?'' Ó Briain still insists on doing two-hour shows, sometimes longer, when he could actually get away with only doing an hour. 'I'm old school,' he says. 'I see younger comics do an hour, but I don't want to, I am not quite Springsteen with the 3½ hours but venues have an interval, people spend money in the interval, it's good for everyone.' I hated being 15, I didn't know how to talk to people, I'm still not brilliant at small talk — Dara Ó Briain After a string of 19 shows in Vicar Street, lately he's been transitioning the show from Ireland to the UK. 'I left Vicar thinking what a beautiful thing, how glorious, this show is a work of art. 'Were you not there? You missed something special' – then I bring it to somewhere like Cheltenham, which is a Presbyterian hall with a massive pipe organ, it's a different thing. 'It's an awkward one anyway, because in England you have to strip away certain familiar details you really enjoy telling, and then it becomes a slightly more polished product. But the process of the polishing removes maybe some of the sweet, little shared moments that you'd have with a gig in Ireland. Then they get a chance to drop back in again when you go back.' It's different in Dublin. 'It's more familiar ... it feels most like I'm just telling you the story and you're all on board.' This 'polishing' process is necessary though. He might lose anecdotes about Micheál Martin meeting Trump, but the show is tighter and becomes more universal. It becomes something that can play 'in Auckland or in Oslo … so ...t's a good process'. He goes deeper into this, describing his career as going from – he adopts an insecure voice – 'I was funny in UCD to, oh no, now I'm talking to people who weren't in UCD but they're from Dublin. Oh no! Now I'm talking to people from Cork. They're not from Dublin or from UCD, oh no, this is really difficult now. The whole point of your career is you trying to get to a universal place.' The photographer arrives and Ó Briain is extremely obliging when she asks him to peek around a curtain and lean his head on the table. He chats all the while, talking so fast that it's sometimes hard to keep up. He's generous with his time, an endlessly obliging interviewee full of decency and good humour. At one point he mentions that he had his 40th birthday in this restaurant. He loves parties but they also bring up deep-rooted insecurities. One friend, journalist and broadcaster Tony Parsons, was aware of this and texted him five minutes before the event started to say, 'Nobody is going to show up to your party'. Top table: Dara Ó Briain. Photograph: Nicola Tree Parsons knew the old wound he was poking. Part of Ó Briain has never got past being a 'dorky' 15-year-old, full of insecurities and fear of being unpopular. 'I hated being 15, I didn't know how to talk to people, I'm still not brilliant at small talk ... I always felt like the dumbest, ugliest person in the class. All of that stuff. A test case.' He remembers going to Coláiste Eoin on the 84 bus from Bray and being in conversations that would just dry up. 'I'd sit there thinking, You are so bad at this, you are useless.' That fell away in UCD when he discovered with 'glee' that he could not just talk to people but in front of people, that he was a whizz on the debating team and, even better, could make people laugh. 'I remember the relief of not having that any more ... that sense of not being beholden to your own insecurities.' His fear of returning to those dark, dorky days has clearly been a driving force, but it may be losing its potency as a motivator. 'At some point I'll just go, 'I mean Jesus, Dara, how long have you spent wanting to be liked? How long have you spent wanting these people's approval?' To be clear, he doesn't mean the Vicar Street residencies, the people who come to see him because they love what he does, a long-standing relationship he deeply values. He's talking more about 'the fight, the hustle to get on panel shows where you are in front of an audience who aren't necessarily your crowd and you're saying 'hey! Here's my stuff' and there is a point where you're saying to yourself, why are you doing this? You're 53. You don't need to be impressing the audience on Blankety Blank, which is actually something I did three weeks ago.' He's laughing now but there's a seriousness to his point. 'I've been blessedly lucky ... I was given this platform for 17 years by the BBC [Mock the Week] that gave me my crowd and my crowd continued to come ... but then every so often you think, you should do these things, you should go on Blankety Blank, you should go and be funny in front of a mainstream audience who are really just there for the host not for you.' When he went on that show recently one of the participants was showbiz veteran Maureen Lipman. 'I said 'Maureen, you've done this before and she goes 'I've done it with them all, I've done it with Terry [Wogan], I've done it with Les [Dawson], I've done it with Lily [Savage] and now with Bradley [Walsh]'.' Lipman was 'an absolute delight' by the way, despite persistent diva stories. I have an asteroid named after me. That's the coolest thing that's ever happened. It's called 4910 Ó Briain — Dara Ó Briain He is not tempted by shows with 'celebrity' in the title. You won't, for example, find him in the jungle with Ant and Dec eating kangaroo scrotum. 'I don't watch that. I never have, I don't find that sort of thing entertaining,' he says. So no Strictly Come Dancing? 'God no, even if it was offered,' he says referencing a long-standing joint issue. 'I've a shitty knee. I like a dance but no, I have a hole in my knee and it's hilarious because people go, 'There are people who have lost their legs who do that show', and yes, that's true, but I can't do any impact stuff, I'm not allowed to run ... I'm staving off having my entire knee joint replaced with a robotic joint, so Strictly would be an awful thing to do.' Stargazing Live: Prof Brian Cox and Dara Ó Briain. Photograph: Andrew Hayes-Watkins/BBC Anyway, he always has his science gigs, another enjoyable side hustle for the comedian. He appears regularly on Curious Cases on BBC Radio 4, and has presented a series of BBC-produced documentaries shows on the moon, the sun and more recently volcanoes for Channel 5. So while some people in his position have stories about partying with famous types his biggest claim to fame 'is I have an asteroid named after me. That's the coolest thing that's ever happened. It's called 4910 Ó Briain'. It happened when he was doing the show Stargazing with Prof Brian Cox. 'He has one too. Mine is a double asteroid, excitingly, somewhere between Mars and Jupiter.' Our time in nearly up, so I ask how long more does he think he'll carry on with these huge tours? He's definitely conscious that 'at one point it will all end', that he might even be the one to pull the plug, perhaps deciding to pack it in one day to stay at home listening to opera – he's a recent convert, loves a bit of Carmen – and spend more time with his family, 'who I quite like'. 'That's a genuine puzzle for me at the moment,' he says. 'If I had to start again, like, if you dropped me in the middle of say America, and said, right, work your way up to the clubs ... I don't think I'd have the energy to do that hustle again.' On the other hand 'it's just talking and it's a very fun job. So whether or not I'll do that many more big tours, I don't know. I mean at some point there'll be the ending tour, a greatest hits of all the shows and I just say to audiences 'look you don't remember these anyway,' so I'm just going to go through them all. And these are lovely routines to do. I'll just enjoy myself doing killer routines to finish it off and say goodbye at the end.' [ 'We've all done it': Dara Ó Briain offers support to actor after only one person attends her show Opens in new window ] The adoption stories have taken up the last two shows and he's clearly relishing bringing them, with all their gobsmacking twists and turns, to audiences. 'There's been a heart to them; it's very enjoyable.' Before he leaves, he jokes about the possibility of a third show, one that would turn his adoption saga into a trilogy. He describes a sequence of events in an imagined future where one day a man or woman will track Ó Briain down, knocks on his door in leafy Chiswick and greets him with 'hello Daddy!' 'Now, that would make a great show,' he declares. Re: Creation with Dara Ó Briain is in Vicar Street on July 3rd, 4th, 5th and 10th, 11th and 12th, and Live at the Marquee in Cork on June 29th
ITV News
05-05-2025
- General
- ITV News
'They were seen as less than human': Still no justice over British-Irish forced adoptions
British authorities saw unmarried Irish mothers as a burden on the public purse, while the Catholic Church wanted to keep babies in their faith, ITV News Social Affairs Correspondent Sarah Corker reports Three generations of the Cahill family have been deeply affected by what happened decades ago. Fiona Cahill's mother Maria was born in a Red Cross mother and baby home in London in 1954, but as a newborn baby was sent to one of Ireland's most notorious institutions with her mother Philomena, who was unmarried. Philomena had moved from Ireland to London for work as a teenager and later met Maria's father. Like thousands of others, she was labelled as a 'PFI'. In the 1950s and 60s, a pregnant, unmarried women from Ireland was reduced to an acronym by social workers in England - PFI which stood for 'pregnant from Ireland.' At that time, thousands of young women had fled Ireland to avoid the brutal institutions there, but they found Britain to be an unwelcoming place and different forces conspired to pressure women to give up their babies. The British authorities saw them as a burden on the public purse, while the Catholic Church in Ireland wanted to keep babies in their faith. The result was an organised repatriation scheme where journeys were organised and paid for by the state and the church. Fiona, 50, who is an artist and carer, contacted ITV News after seeing our ongoing investigation in historic forced adoption. 'The archbishops talked about saving catholic souls, the saving the soul was more important than saving the life," she said. "They viewed it as once they were in the institution, they were less than human.' She has spent decades examining archives and files trying to piece together the mysteries of her mother's childhood. 'There was an anti Irish migrant rhetoric and the cost to the British taxpayer is something that comes up a lot in the archives," she said. "They were justifying it about the cost. It was a real culture of shame, secrecy and oppression.' After spending two years at Castlepollard mother and baby Home in County Westmeath, Ireland, which at time had a 40% infant mortality rate, Maria was adopted by a woman who she described as "emotionally abusive". Fiona recalls how her mother would have post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms stemming from her difficult early years, and how that trauma has been passed down the generations. "She'd struggle controlling her emotions," she said. "It could be chaotic and difficult growing up. We just had to try to support her, but I just remember feeling helpless.' Maria who lived in Doncaster and passed away in 2023 aged 69, only found out she was adopted when she was 21 as she applied for a passport. It wasn't until she was 40 that she discovered she was a British citizen after finding out that she had two birth certificates, a UK one and a "falsified" Irish one. In the decades that followed she tried unsuccessfully to trace her birth parents. 'All she ever wanted was a hug from her own mum,' Fiona said. Since her mother's death, Fiona feels it's her duty to carry on the campaign for justice and recognition. "It's like a dark corner that never goes away," she added. "One thing that can't happen is for it to be swept under the carpet and forgotten, I couldn't bare that thought." Survivors are now campaigning for compensation from both Irish and British governments – who they say were directly involved in the 'brutal' repatriation scheme from 1930 to the late 1970s. In March, Labour MP Liam Conlon, who is the national chair of the Labour Party Irish Society, introduced Philomena's Law to support the 13,000 survivors of Ireland's mother and baby homes in Britain. Speaking to ITV News, Mr Conlon said he had been "unaware" of the PFI forced repatriation scheme and described it as "horrific". "It's really shocking and a really underreported and unrecognised aspect of this wider scandal," he said. "To hear that women who would have been very vulnerable, who would have come here (to Britain) to then be deported, often very pregnant, and put in those institutions is horrific." Fiona and her family are now calling for all archives from religious and state run mother and baby institutions in the UK to be preserved and accessible. She wants a special site to house documents, objects and oral history, so that this dreadful period of history cannot be forgotten. "There are many people who still assume they were 'given up' and remain totally unaware of the manner in which unmarried women and children were treated," Fiona added. In 2021 the Irish Taoiseach delivered a formal apology for historic forced adoption and the suffering caused. That apology was "accompanied by a Government Action Plan for Survivors providing for actions under eight themes including redress, access to records and memorialisation," a spokesperson for the Irish government said. In response to our investigation, the UK government said: 'This abhorrent practice should never have taken place, and our deepest sympathies are with all those affected. 'We take this issue extremely seriously and continue to engage with those impacted to provide support.' In 2016 the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales apologised 'for the hurt caused by agencies acting in the name of the Catholic Church'. Cardinal Vincent Nichols acknowledged 'the grief and pain caused by the giving up of a child through adoption", and added that "the practices of all adoption agencies reflected the social values at the time".
