Photo – Derek Leinster, born in the Bethany Home in 1938 and chairman of the Bethany Home Survivors’ Group, with Lorraine Jackson, who was brought to the home and adopted after nine months, attending an annual remembrance at Mount Jerome cemetery for children who lost their lives at the home.
An Irish pensioner who was raised in an orphanage made a surprise visit to her 103-year-old mother when a genealogist tracked her down after a six-decade search.
Eileen Macken, 81, grew up in the Bethany Home orphanage in Dublin and knew nothing about her birth mother who had given her up for adoption as a child.
But after a 61-year search, and a call to RTÉ‘s Liveline programme, Ms Macken made a surprise visit to her mother Elizabeth, who a genealogist had tracked to Scotland.
She said: ‘Once I heard that, nothing would stop me trying to get to see her.‘
Their joyful reunion marked the end of a search that Mrs Macken launched when she was just 19, in a poignant echo of the Oscar-nominated movie Philomena starring Dame Judi Dench.
After throwing her arms around the centenarian for a hug, Mrs Macken said: ‘You‘ve no idea what it‘s done to me. I‘m just so happy.‘
Her mother, Elizabeth, was 22 when she gave birth to Eileen in August 1937 in a doctor‘s surgery in Dublin.
In those days, babies born out of wedlock were typically adopted, and baby Eileen was handed to the Bethany Home in the Irish Republic‘s capital. Aged five months, she was passed to the Church of Ireland Orphan House in the city where she lived until she was 17.
On April 11, accompanied by her husband George, 82, and one of her daughters, Mrs Macken flew over from Ireland.
Mrs Macken embarked on a trip with her family to visit Elizabeth, who turns 104 tomorrow, in April despite receiving no invitation to make the journey.
Her family were worried about making the trip uninvited, but Mrs Macken was determined to meet her birth mother – who she was shocked is still alive.
She told the : ‘I went over to see her and she‘s the most beautiful lady, lovely family, they gave me a great welcome.
‘We came in and honestly, I haven‘t got over the acceptance that I got because I was thinking, ‘This is terrible, what am I going to do?‘ But they accepted me and I had a great chat with my mother.
‘I know she‘s my mum and I said it to her. ‘You know I‘m your daughter‘ and she looked up at me and took my hand, we had a great chat.
‘There was such a bond between the two of us, it was fantastic.‘
The mother-of-three, who once described herself as ‘Ireland‘s oldest orphan‘, began searching for her mother, Elizabeth, when she was just 19 and never gave up hope of finding her.
Mrs Macken, from Perrystown in Dublin, also discovered in the three-day trip that she has two half-brothers.
When she knocked on the door, she was met by a man who turned out to be her half-brother.
Mrs Macken told Liveline: ‘I told him I was from Ireland and that I had found my mum here and could we come in to see her, and he said, ‘Certainly‘.
‘She was reading the newspaper and when she saw me, I said we were from Ireland and she said, ‘I was born in Ireland‘.
‘She was thrilled and she never let go of my hand. I don‘t think I‘ll ever come down out of the cloud.‘
The mother-of-three described the trip as ‘three days of wonderful happiness‘ the likes of which she had ‘never ever had before‘.
Mrs Macken, whose own children are Hazel, 54, Graham, 48, and Olwen, 44, added: ‘I said to my children: all my life I love this lady, and I don‘t know who she is. But now I am so happy.‘
After three days together Mrs Macken went home. She said: ‘My mother said to me, ‘Oh I‘d love to make you some tea, but I don‘t think I‘ll be able to‘. And I told her don‘t worry at all about it. I don‘t want tea I just wanted to chat to you.‘
She told the : ‘I don‘t think I‘ve done any work in the house [since she came back], I‘m that happy. I‘m going around singing.
‘You‘ve no idea what it‘s done to me, I‘m just so happy.‘
Ms Macken said she was so excited at having found her mother she wanted to go up a big mountain and ‘scream it out to everybody‘, reported.
She had said that she could not believe it when she discovered that her mother was alive – describing herself as the ‘happiest person alive‘.
Ms Macken spoke of hearing her ‘fabulous‘ mother‘s voice on the phone for the first time, saying that the only thing she wanted to do was meet her, overwhelmed by the joy of not being ‘an orphan anymore‘.
The Bethany mother and baby home in Dublin, which was run by Protestant clergy, was one of a number scrutinised by an Irish government-appointed Commission of Investigation.
These homes were generally institutions where women who became pregnant outside marriage gave birth. In the main, these babies were adopted.
Stock Daily, December 3, 2019
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