Banished Babies: The Secret History of Ireland's Baby Export Business

Banished Babies: The Secret History of Ireland's Baby Export Business

From Booklist
Since this story broke in 1996, the Irish media have been chasing down details of the "export" --primarily to the U.S.--of 2,000-plus infants and toddlers born to unmarried Irish mothers between the late '40s and the mid-'70s. Reporter Milotte did a TV documentary on the subject; his book incorporates new archival material released by the Irish government and the Catholic Church, as well as three involving case studies of efforts by adoptees or the mothers who reluctantly gave them up to get back together. At mid-century, both church and state in Ireland stressed shame, secrecy, and the religion of adoptive parents over all other considerations; only in the mid-'50s did Eire require confirmation that proposed parents could provide a healthy (as well as a Catholic) home for Irish kids, and several money-based schemes slipped through the Republic's lax rules. An enlightening international sidebar to studies of the consequences of open versus closed adoption. Mary Carroll