A 2-year-old boy who was taken into care by gardaí yesterday was reunited with his parents in the midlands just before lunchtime.*
The fair-haired, blue-eyed boy was taken into care at around 7pm yesterday when gardai called to the toddler’s home.
Gardaí informed the boy’s parents, who also have a 4 year-old girl of a darker complexion, of a case in west Dublin where a young girl was removed from her family following concerns raised by a member of the public that the couple with which she was living may not be her biological parents.
The boy’s father was surprised his son was taken. “I was pretty sad that’s the truth, anyone would be sad if their kids go away,” he told The Irish Times .
“It was very bad last night, I couldn’t sleep,” the father said, adding, the boy’s four-year-old sister was crying and asking for her brother.
Appearing oblivious to the commotion caused by his removal, the little boy played happily on a tricycle outside his family home today.
The event unfolded yesterday when two uniformed gardai called to the house where the boy was living and asked the boy’s father to come with them to a local Garda station, “they did not tell me straight away what happened,” he explained.
“I go there (Garda station) and they tell me what happened. I said why do you want to take my kid…they tell me we want to take him for one night, we want to take him to Dublin for blood and everything. I said OK,” he recalled.
“I said take blood take what you want but don’t take my kid from me because I never want nobody to take my kids,” he added
The toddler's father said his family have lived at their current address for a year. They have lived in Ireland since 2005 and his son was born in Ballinasloe hospital.
Pointing to a picture of the child’s fair-haired grandfather, the man said, his son is also fair haired and blue-eyed and asked, “what can I do about that?”
He claimed one of the gardai who attended at the house knew him for the last five years. “I no make trouble in this country, the guards, they know that,” he commented.
*This article was amended on October 24th 2013