How many women are caught between hope and fear by the promised release of files on adoption and on orphanages by the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Education? These are women who gave birth to children outside marriage at a time when the country indulged itself in a hypocritical self righteousness which could not tolerate the visible presence of these children and which demanded that they be put away. Many of these mothers were sent to convents in other parts of the country until they gave birth, so that their "shame" would never be exposed.
For many of them the painful memory is also a secret memory and though they long to hear from their children, they may fear the reaction from their, present families to the knowledge that they had a child in the past whose existence was kept hidden. But the children - now adults - have rights too. Many of them want to have contact of some sort with theirs birth parents. They want their birth parents to know that they are there and that they would like to meet them. If the response is to be that the parent or parents will not meet them they want to know that at least a fair effort was made on their behalf.
Rightly or wrongly, many do not believe that a fair effort is being made on their behalf by the religious orders who ran the adoption societies and orphanages in question. To make matters worse, many have found that the information on their birth certificates is false. Surely the time has come, for everybody's sake, to bring order into this situation? One course of action which suggests itself straight away is the establishment of a Contact Register through which birth parents and children could signify their wishes to meet each other confidentially. Such a register, as Barnardos has tirelessly pointed out, should cover not only adoptions here and abroad, but people raised in residential care and in foster care who want to meet their birth parents. Its work should be backed up by a competent, professional staff which could provide information and counselling to both parties.
Clearly this staff would also be in an excellent position to handle the information in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Education files and to do so in a way which dealt with the fears as well as the rights of all concerned. This staff would also have to have access to the files of the adoption societies. This is a thorny issue but one which must be faced. In the absence of a voluntary agreement with the adoption societies, the government may have to bring in legislation to deal with the matter. The forthcoming Freedom of Information Bill would provide a good opportunity to do just that.
But who is to run the Contact Register, provide the information and counselling, and help parents and children to get in touch with each other in ways which respect the complex realities surrounding these situations? Barnardos has been helping birth parents and adopted people for many years. In its work as an independent child care agency it has earned an impressive reputation for quality work and for treating parents and children with genuine respect. There is no doubt that Barnardos could do the job, and do it well, for the Government. Moreover, the idea of handing this task, and the necessary resources, over to Barnardos has the support of groups representing birth parents, adoptive parents and adoptees.