LAST month's announcement by the Tanaiste that files on the adoption of Irish babies in the United States had been found raised hopes among adoptees and birth mothers.

For the birth mothers the files and the contact which they could facilitate offer the hope of meeting again the children whom they had to hand over to be sent to the US.

Most of these women cowed, frightened girls at the time had no real option but to yield to society's insistence that the very existence of their children be kept secret.

Shut up in mother and child homes (there was nowhere else to go) and denied uncensored contact with the outside world, they meekly signed the papers which were put in front of them.

Perhaps the worst part of the experience was that they had bonded closely with their children by the time they were taken away, often at less than 24 hours' notice.

For many, the pain of separation has continued ever since.

Given short shrift by some adoption societies and religious orders when it comes to contacting their children, many women look to the Government for a solution in the light of Mr Dick Spring's pledge that he will try to find a way to help them.

Some of these women have been receiving help from Barnardo's, which has recently set up a helpline on 1850 212000 from 10a.m. to 1p.m. daily.

Two of these mothers, who gave birth to their babies in the early 1960s, in the mother and baby home run by the Sacred Heart sisters at Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, have spoken to The Irish Times about their experiences.