Imagine discovering your parents are not your birth parents, and you, in fact, are adopted.
This is the reality for 126 people in Ireland, according to a Tusla report.
According to reports, the child and family agency are due to contact the individuals affected to inform them of an error on their birth certificates.
Their births were "incorrectly registered" and they have had their adoptive parents listed as their birth parents on the official documentation, the Tulsa report revealed.
It is understood that the illegal act took place between 1946 and 1969.
Tusla uncovered evidence in St Patrick’s Guild records of the incorrect registering.
On index cards "adopted from birth" was marked and attached to some files.
According to the Independent.ie, it would have been a huge challenge to identify the 126 cases without this label indication.
Incorrect Registrations of Birth: New Evidence in St Patrick Guild Records https://t.co/5ffoGGzugW
— Katherine Zappone (@KZapponeTD) May 29, 2018
Minister for Children, Katherine Zappone addressed the issue yesterday, saying she was:
“Keenly aware that many of those affected have no idea that the people they regarded as their parents were not, in fact, their birth parents”.
Furthermore, according to the Minister, in the identified cases, the victims have "no reason to suspect" the error.
“In effect, babies were given to a couple and registered as the child of that couple and not of the baby’s birth parents,” she explained.
The Minister also said her and her colleagues "struggled" with the decision to tell those involved, given the potentially devastating impact it could have on their lives.
However, she said ultimately they chose to release the information as she said, "people have a right to know who they are."
According to the Irish Times, this isn't the first time the government have been notified of the mistake in the birth registering.
They have on record 21 years ago, in April 1997, a social correspondent Pádraig O’Moráin reporting on the Guild's adoption of babies.
“One of the main adoption societies in the State has admitted giving false information to adopted people about their parents. The society, St Patrick’s Guild, handled the adoption of many Irish babies by people in the United States and more than 10,000 adoptions here," said the extract.
Additionally, Susan Lohan of the Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA) said that they had flagged the falsified documents twice in the last decade.
After many attempts of bringing the issue to the attention of government ministers, Ms Lohan praised Ms Zappone for publicly releasing the information.
She said she feels “extremely sorry and sad for these [126] people. It may take several weeks before they find out.”
However, they now hope to put together “robust supports for these people,” in light of the revelations.
