Whenever a new documentary once again peels back the layers of secrecy, shame and deception that were for decades a defining feature of life in Ireland, the biggest shock is that there is no shock. We all know that this is how things have always been done here: the truth quietly placed in a bottom drawer, terrible deeds waved through with a wink and a nudge. The faces change. The story is the same.

And so while the wrongdoings chronicled in RTÉ Investigates: Ireland’s Illegal Adoptions (RTÉ One, Wednesday, 9.35pm) are obviously heinous, the documentary ultimately lands with a predictable thud. Of course, religious institutions facilitated illegal adoptions. And yes, obviously, the State was complicit in what was essentially a child-laundering conspiracy on an industrial scale. Have the now grown-up victims received justice? What do you think?

The sheer scale of the scandal documented in Aoife Hegarty’s report is hard to take in over the span of a single sitting. Indeed, if this otherwise peerless film has a flaw, it is that it might have been better served by airing in instalments.

I’ve seen dogs that were purchased and the people selling the dogs being more concerned about how the dog was doing than the nuns were

There’s just too much. One case that stands out is that of Mary Dolan, who describes receiving sensitive information relating to her illegal adoption from a Tusla social worker in a hotel lobby. (In a statement, Tusla said it would “engage with” and “apologise to” the “small number” of people who received news about their birth parents in inappropriate settings.) Later she was told she had a birth sibling, living in the United States. They met over the internet and bonded. A DNA test subsequently revealed the initial information had been incorrect: they were not related at all.

Taoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin has described revelations about illegal adoptions as "shocking".

He said "what happened was wrong" and "completely unacceptable".

RTÉ Investigates has reported that for decades thousands of babies born to unmarried mothers were illegally adopted.

Many only recently found out they were adopted, believing until then that the mother and father they grew up with were their natural parents.

Some also discovered they had been celebrating their birthday on the wrong date for decades, because their birth certificates had been falsified.

Parliamentary question 2015Z22513

The message 'Free play for child traffickers' regarding illegal adoption from Nepal

Submitted November 25, 2015

Answered December 22, 2015 (after 27 days)

Submitter Khadija Arib ( Labor )

Breaking: Writ Of Habeas Corpus Not Maintainable Against Judicial Order Of Magistrate /CWC Sending Minor Victim To Children Protection Homes:Allahabad

A Full Bench of Allahabad High Court on Monday held that an order passed by a Judicial Magistrate

or Child Welfare Committee sending victim to women protection homes/child care homes cannot

be challenged or set aside in a writ of habeas corpus. Subsequently, the Bench also observed that

the detention of a corpus in such child care homes cannot be treated as an illegal detention.

During the last cabinet term, Minister Hugo de Jonge was 'system responsible' for youth care. A headache file, about which he barely informed the House for three years and in which the new decentralized health care system turned out to be indomitable. Silent and inglorious, De Jonge left the portfolio at the end of last year, on which he manifested himself as an alderman in Rotterdam. Youth care is in crisis. 'Thinking that it will all work out on its own, I just don't believe in that anymore.'

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Sweden was a driving force in creating the international adoption movement.

The political unity was total - adopting became a matter of course.

This is the story of how Swedish governments have acted to increase adoptions to the country.

Patrik Lundberg

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In several European countries, there is currently a lively discussion about international adoptions. The debate started when the Netherlands decided to stop all international adoptions for the time being, the half-finished adoption processes are of course completed.

However, the discussion has been going on for many years. For example, Denmark temporarily stopped international adoptions in 2019, investigating the operability and ethics of the adoption system, until 2020 when international adoptions resumed. Last year, practices in international adoption by third parties were also reviewed in Sweden and the current model was found to work.

The investigations are a result of concerns about the ethics of international adoptions, as individual adoptions have been shown to contain irregularities. The discussion and investigations have been useful. The Swedish Inquiry's final report contains recommendations on, for example, developing services after adoption and Nordic co-operation, and it pays to listen to these recommendations here in Finland as well.

Why does bureaucracy take so much time?

We wish that the ongoing discussion for practice in international adoption a few steps forward again and open up new perspectives. In the public discussion, bureaucracy and the long process of adoptions are often seen as a negative thing. Hopefully we will see a shift from the point of view of the parents and the expectants also to the perspective of the adopted children.

More than 20 High Court cases in relation to illegal adoptions have been launched and are at “an advanced stage”, it has emerged.

Dublin solicitors Coleman Legal Partners has now issued 14 cases in total, while Navan-based firm Cosgrave Solicitors represents clients in nine other cases.*

Cosgraves secured substantial damages for Tressa Reeves and her son Andre Donnelly in 2018, while Coleman Legal Partners lodged a case last year for Belfast man Patrick FitzSymons, whose parents handed him to the Catholic church agency St Patrick’s Guild in the 1960s, which then arranged for him to be adopted by a couple in Co Antrim. Mr FitzSymons’s case was formally launched in January 2020.

He sought damages for personal and psychological injuries and exemplary damages for “actionable conspiracy, deceit, malicious falsehood and infringement of constitutional rights”, relating to the alleged forgery of birth documents.

St Patrick’s Guild has so far declined to nominate lawyers to defend the case. Norman Spicer of Coleman Legal Partners said his firm has secured a judgment in default of appearance against St Patrick’s Guild in four cases of the 14 so far and more are due before the courts in the coming weeks..

"I don't see any need for an adoption break in Flanders for the time being." Flemish Minister of Welfare Wouter Beke said this in the Flemish Parliament on Tuesday. Earlier this month, the Netherlands decided to suspend intercountry adoption altogether following a damning report about the system.

According to the report, the Dutch government has fallen short of looking away from bad situations for years. This includes the forging of documents, the abuse of poverty among the birth mothers and the relinquishment of children for payment or coercion.

According to Minister Beke, however, you cannot simply compare Flanders with the Netherlands. He points out that the start-up of international adoption channels in Flanders is different from our northern neighbors. “In the Netherlands, adoption services can have themselves accredited in the country of origin without a prior investigation by the government. In Flanders, the Flemish Central Authority (VCA) conducts a preliminary investigation and an adoption service must be given permission to start in a specific country. ”

In addition, the minister says, every new cooperation requires advice from the Federal Central Authority, Foreign Affairs and other relevant partners. "The cooperation is thoroughly investigated and certainly also whether the principles of the Hague Convention are respected, as well as our legislation and that of the country of origin."

In addition, the services are only allowed to start with a limited number of trial files after approval. According to Beke, as much as possible is visited on site, except during corona, to check all information against the reality on site.

A son of former President and Taoiseach Éamon de Valera facilitated illegal adoptions in the 1950s and 1960s, according to a new documentary.

Professor Éamon de Valera Jr is said to have helped arrange for four children to be illegally adopted into the same house.

Evidence has also emerged showing he arranged antenatal appointments for a woman who was not pregnant.

This allowed her to pretend the child she was illegally adopting was hers.

Prof De Valera is one of three doctors named in a documentary being broadcast tonight who are alleged to have facilitated such adoptions.