'Reasonable Chance' scandal will hit St Peter's

There is a “reasonable chance” that the adoption scandal could extend to St Peter’s Mother and Baby Home in Castlepollard, a leading activist has said.

While no information has yet been provided about the places of birth of the 126 people known to have had their birth certificates fraudulently altered to include the names of their adoptive parents rather than their birth mothers and fathers, some children born in the mother and baby home in Castlepollard were adopted through the St Patrick’s Guild adoption agency.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner this week, chairperson of the Coalition of Mother and Baby Homes Survivors, Paul Redmond, who was born in St Peter’s in 1964, believes that there is a “reasonable chance” that some children born in Castlepollard had their birth certificates illegally altered prior to their adoption.

“It’s possible some people born in Castlepollard will be affected,” he said.

“The thing about it at the moment is that they haven’t given out any information as to the places of birth of any of the 126 people affected, so we don’t actually know if there is anyone from Castlepollard.”

During the course of his research into the 200 deaths that were recorded in St Peter’s Mother and Baby Home during the 36 years it was in operation, 1935 to 1971, Mr Redmond says that he discovered a number of discrepancies in the records.

“There a few babies whose deaths are registered but we can’t find any corresponding birth certificates.”

Mr Redmond says that it is “very difficult” to know the reasons for the irregularities in the records from St Peter’s.

However, he noted that a HSE report obtained by the Irish Examiner under a Freedom of Information request into similar, albeit much larger, discrepancies at the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork, which was also run by the Sacred Heart Order, raised concerns that records may have been tampered with to enable children to be “brokered into clandestine adoption arrangements, both foreign and domestic”.

Regarding the current controversy, Mr Redmond says the government should act quickly to address “the real information deficit” that exists at present.

He was also critical of the handling of the affair by Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone.

“Katherine Zappone said that she actually has had this information since February and they’ve been deciding whether to tell people.

“I think that is absolutely disgraceful. She has no right to decide anything.

“Those people who have been illegally adopted need to be told, they have a right to the truth.”