Philomena Lee has said she hopes that telling her story of how she was forced to give up her son for adoption at a mother and baby home in the 1950s will help other women of her generation in a similar situation to tell their stories and trace their children.
"I think I've opened some doors by telling my story, I certainly hope I've opened some doors especially for women of my generation so that they can come out and tell their stories because a lot of them still can't do it," Ms Lee (81) said.
“We had such fears put into us by the nuns - we were such sinners and we were reminded of it every day (when told) ‘ Get down on your knees and pray for forgiveness’ but we accepted it all because we knew nothing else.”
She said that “women of my generation should come out and tell their stories because they will get such relief from telling of their experience - I certainly did and I was able to put my son, Anthony to rest in the end and people will get that sense of closure.”
Ms Lee, whose story of how her son Anthony was taken from her at the Sean Ross Mother and Baby Home in Roscrea in Co Tipperary in the 1950s, inspired the Oscar nominated film 'Philomena' starring Dame Judi Dench, was speaking at a conference on adoption in Cork.
Addressing the conference entitled Redefining adoption in a new era: Opportunities and challenges for law and practice, Ms Lee received a standing ovation as she told her story of how she was forced to put Anthony up for adoption when he was just three and a half years old.
She spoke movingly of her devastation when she learned that after being adopted by a family in the US, he returned to Ireland and Sean Ross on three separate occasions to try and find her only to die in 1995 before she could make contact with him.
"The nuns told him when he came back that I had abandoned him when he was two weeks old - it was heartbreaking to hear that," said Ms Lee, who was accompanied at the conference by her daughter, Jane Libberton.
Ms Lee spoke of her sadness at the scandal of the mass graves at some mother and baby homes and how it particularly impacted on her when attending a memorial service in June at Roscrea for those who had died at the home.
“The story about Tuam had broken the week before and I think it brought it home to me -if I had died in Roscrea or Anthony had died and we could have because it was a very bad breach birth, we would have been buried in a mass grave - I thought I could have been there.”
Ms Lee urged the Government to ensure that the terms of inquiry for the forthcoming the Commission of Inquiry into the Mother and Baby Homes be as broad as possible so that every aspect of adoption is examined.
“People who were adopted should have the right to see their adoption files and I think it’s beginning but I hope that the Government will eventually be able to see to it that people have access to those - in my case I didn’t have any notes and there were things done that I didn’t know anything about.”
