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Irish woman illegally adopted to the US looks to Britain to find birth mother

AN IRISH-AMERICAN who was illegally adopted at birth is hoping to locate her birth mother in Britain.

Paula Douglas, 56, was one of many Irish children who were illegally adopted in the 1950s and 1960s.

She believes her birth mother may have left Ireland to work in Britain, as many unmarried mothers did at the time.

And it was the 2013 film Philomena that prompted her to take action.

From an early age, Ms Douglas knew she was adopted — but it was always shrouded in mystery.

“I was about four years old and just remember I saw a movie on TV where a kid was adopted and I asked my mom about it and she just said yeah, you were adopted,’” Ms Douglas said.

But it was rarely mentioned again — and most of her family members were unaware of her Irish roots.

Paula (right) with her daughter Caitlin.

Born in Dublin and brought to the US by her new parents as a two-month-old, Ms Douglas dug out as much information as she could and began her search.

But her birth certificate has proved to be a big source of mystery.

It puts her adoptive parents as her biological parents — and put her date of birth as April 2 as opposed to her actual birth date of April 9.

“I was talking to my husband about my date of birth one day and he suggested I should contact a few of my older relatives to find out what I could,” she said.

“I called my aunt who lives nearby and I opened a huge family mess,” she revealed.

My dad died in 2012 and my mom is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, so I’m hoping to find out something before it’s too late

“According to my aunt, my parents told everyone that I was their natural child except a very small circle of relatives.”

After she began to look into it, it was sug- gested to her that she should watch the film Philomena, which told the sad story of an Irish woman’s lifelong hunt for her son, who was adopted as a child and died before they had a chance to meet.

“I went to see it with my daughter and before that I had no idea what it was like in Ireland at that time,” she said.

“It really brought it home for me, it was so sad. So I started looking into the history of it then.”

She has found out a lot about her roots — but no clues as to who her biological parents were.

Ms Douglas was brought to live in San Francisco by her adoptive parents Ron and Lil Holmes in June 1959.

The physical differences were striking — 5'7'' Ms Douglas towers over her 5’1” mother and her 5'2'' late father.

“My dad died in 2012 and my mom is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, so I’m hoping to find out something before it’s too late,” she said.

Ms Douglas was adopted from St Patrick’s Guild mother and baby home in Dublin but has been unable to find any records of her birth mother.

“A lot of women who had babies outside of marriage in Ireland back then would have moved away because it was such a big deal,” she said.

“I’m looking at the UK now because a lot of these women would have ended up there.”

Now based in Livermore, near San Francisco, Ms Douglas is happily married with a 25-year-old daughter, Caitlin.

And though her childhood with her adoptive parents was idyllic, she still feels as though she needs to fill the void.

“I understand my birth mother may not have told her current family about me,” Ms Douglas said.

Paula as a child.

“I respect her privacy. I don’t want to dis- rupt her world. I would just like the chance to meet her or talk to her before any more years go by.”

Irish adoptions in the United States

In total, more than 1,900 babies were illegally adopted into the US from Ireland in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. But this figure could be much higher.

Mari Steed, from Adoption Rights Alliance in New York, said: “It is estimated based on our own research and contact with identified children trafficked from Ireland that another possible 500-plus were trafficked prior to and after 1949.”

The 1950s was the decade that saw the highest level of adoptees on record in Ireland.

Most of the babies were adopted by childless American couples, who could discreetly adopt the child directly from the homes, most of which were run by nuns.

Some couples, like Ms Douglas’ parents, were Irish themselves and moved to the US or Britain with their child.