IRELAND
Irish Independent
Eilish O’Regan
Philomena Lee, whose heartbreaking search for her adopted son became a major movie, has appealed to other women and children who spent time in mother and baby homes to give testimony to the Commission of Investigation.
Ms Lee was unmarried when she gave birth to her son Anthony in the early 1950s. He was given up for adoption to a couple in the United States when he was just three years old.
The mother and baby home in Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, where she gave birth, is now one of 14 institutions which will be part of a promised far-reaching probe by the Commission, which will be chaired by Judge Yvonne Murphy.
The Commission, which will conduct most of its work in private, will have a confidential forum to hear the accounts of past residents.
Ms Lee told the Irish Independent last night: “I encourage those women and children to come forward – even anonymously – to give their testimony as I have done myself, so that every corner is properly investigated and all those affected receive justice.”
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