Woman Claims She Is Father Michael Cleary’s Daughter

Laois Nationalist
September 27, 2014

http://www.laois-nationalist.ie/news/national-news/2014/09/27/woman-claims-she-is-father-michael-clearys-daughter/

AA 29-year-old woman is seeking a paternity DNA test to find out if Father Michael Cleary is her biological father.

Felicia Irwin claims Fr Cleary's housekeeper and secret lover, Phyllis Hamilton, is her birth mother.

The man known as "the singing priest" fathered two sons with his housekeeper Phyllis Hamilton, throughout their 26-year relationship.

The first born boy Douglas Boyd Barrett was given up for adoption, while the second, Ross Hamilton was reared by Phyllis and Fr Cleary, they lived as a family in secret.

Phyills had claimed her third pregnancy resulted from a rape by a priest who had been staying at the parochial house with her and Fr Cleary - but in an interview given in 1995 she later admitted that she didn't know if "Fr Cleary or 'the other man' was responsible.

She travelled to America where she gave birth to a girl on January 18, 1985 - the baby was given up for adoption to her close friend in Florida.

Felica Irwin told the Irish Independent that her adoptive parents revealed the truth to her many years ago.

"My biological mother came to The States and gave birth to me in Fort Lauderdale, Florida," she said.

"I wasn't really told anything up until I was about eight or nine, and they finally sat me down, and they said: 'Look, you're adopted, we chose you'.

"From my understanding, my biological mom was my mom's now best friend. So she had a lot of good to say about her."

Growing up, Felicia Irwin was told that Phyills and Fr Cleary were her Irish cousins.

She spent holidays in Ireland with both of them at the parochial house in Harold's Cross in Dublin.

Felicia Irwin is now a mother of three children of her own.