My adoption story

man_in_savannah

Hello everyone, I am new to this forum. I am a 44 year old male who has lived in Savannah Georgia I thought my whole life. I always was told I was adopted but my adoptive parents said they knew nothing of my birth parents. About two years ago my adoptive mother, who is now very old, gave me some papers and my passport showing how I came to the USA from Ireland before I was one year old.
As you can imagine I had a great interest in all things Irish. I learned about my birth surname and its history, I read many books on Irish history and culture, and eventually traveled to Ireland for a few weeks and even visited the county in which I was born. I thought it best not to seek out my birth mother though I did look in the telephone directory for my adoptive surname.
Anyway the point I want to make is that in everything I have done I have been called "plastic Irish" by Irish people online and while I was there and made to feel like a fool. All I wanted was to know more about my heritage. When I was adopted I became an American citizen, I served in the USMC and I am proud of my country.
All I can say is goodbye Ireland, I wash my hands of you.

karen3212

Op, are you trying to say that the USA is better than Ireland?:eek:

Only joking, you may have met a lot of people that think the USA's foreign policy is a disgrace, and they might have taken it out on you. That is unfair. It's not a good idea to think all people of the one country are the same. I for one are sorry you had a horrible time.

The_Conductor

Man_in_Savannah - sorry to hear of the way you were made feel by people when you tried to research a little.

A few points for you that you may not be aware of- you are entitled to dual citizenship, including an EU passport- if you apply to one of our consulates they will give you information on how to exercise this right.

Quite a few babies and children were defacto exported to the States, both illegitimately and post 1954 legitimately from a number of orphanages and mother and baby homes around the country. A few of these, such as Sean Ross Abbey in Tipperary and St. Patricks Home in Dublin have a degree of notoriety regarding this. An RTE reporter wrote a very interesting book that sheds a lot of light on the practice, its out of print but perhaps you may be able to trace a copy its called "Banished Babies" by Mike Millotte.

Adoptionireland have a US coordinator- Mari Steed, who organises events and is a mine of useful information, particularly for the many thousands of Irish children who were sent abroad.

I'm very sorry about the attitudes you encountered both online and in person- as karen3212 puts it- unfortunately we have very little regard for US foreign policy over this side of the pond, and very often this leads to people being tarred with the same brush.

Kind regards,

Shane McCarrick

trixy

Man in Savannah
Sorry to hear your story, my story is the complete vice versa of yours. I found out my natural father is American. I have no name for him and my birth mother is not interested at the moment in meeting me so am no further with his name.
As soon as people found out I was half American I also got a terrible time, people calling me stupid Amercian etc., I tried to laugh it off but it does hurt especially when this came as a complete shock to me, I always thought I was 100% Irish but to be honest am proud of being 50/50 makes it more interesting.
Don't let all those people bother you most people are not like that and don't let anyone turn you off finding out your own natural history!!