Ann O’Gorman has filed a missing person report for her daughter Evelyn after noticing incorrect information on her child's death certificate
An Irish mother is searching for the daughter she gave birth to in a Co Cork Mother and Baby Home nearly 50 years ago.
"I had my baby in 1971,” Ann O’Gorman told The Irish Sun. “There's a death certificate issued, but the date of birth is wrong and the year is wrong."
Ann O’Gorman was 17 years old when she gave birth to her daughter Evelyn on July 24, 1971, at the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Co Cork.
The home, run by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, was notorious for denying women in labor painkillers and basic aftercare.
O’Gorman says it took her three days to wake up after giving birth to Evelyn. When she did, she was told her newborn baby had died. O’Gorman says she never signed any paperwork relating to the matter.
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Four years later, O’Gorman was again at Bessborough giving birth to her son when she learned the Mother and Baby Home had no records of Evelyn.
"In 1975 I had my son there. When I told them I had a baby there in 1971 they had no record of my baby being born there but they had a record of me being there."
Now, nearly 50 years after Evelyn’s birth, O’Gorman has filed a missing person report for her daughter, hoping that the discrepancy on Evelyn’s death certificate means she could still be alive.
In recent years, it has been revealed that Irish Mother and Baby Homes were frequently conducting illegal adoptions, often without involving the mothers. A government inquiry investigating the illegal adoptions, as well as the neglect that many mothers and babies faced in such homes, is ongoing.
Read More: Mother and son separated for 51 years take Irish adoption agency to court
"I'm so happy I've done this. I'm going to fight for her one way or another,” says O’Gorman.
"I'm going to keep on smiling and keep on fighting."
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