Minute from Brian Gallagher to Frederick H. Boland (Dublin)
(345/96)

Secretary
I think it well to submit to you at this stage this file dealing with the 'export' of Irish orphans to America for adoption there. Apparently there is considerable interest in America in this matter and the Legation in Washington has received a number of enquiries from Catholic organisations in that country. There have also been enquiries from Americans asking for information as to whether they could get Irish orphans for adoption.

This Department, strictly speaking, enters into the matter only in so far as it is necessary to give Irish passports to the children concerned. On the 21st December last we informed the Consul in San Francisco that we were prepared to issue passports to children who were to be adopted by people in the U.S.A. provided that the parents' or guardian's consent is obtained and that satisfactory evidence of the foster-parents' suitability is produced.¹ It is no part of our function to assist foreigners to remove Irish children from this country for the purpose of adopting them and indeed we would be open to criticism if we were to attempt to do so. Furthermore, if foreigners require services to be performed for them in this country, it is to their own diplomatic or consular representatives that they should look, and accordingly on the 15th June² we told the Embassy in Washington that if they received further approaches from American citizens, they should be told to address their enquiries to the American Embassy in Dublin.

In the meantime, some of the cases where children had been taken to America for adoption have already attracted a good deal of attention, not only in America but also here, and the Department of Health, on the 12th December last,³ asked us to ascertain whether it would be possible to arrange that foreign adoptive parents should be obliged to produce evidence of character, suitability and religion, supported by a recommendation from the diplomatic representative in this country. Subsequently, the Archbishop of Dublin apparently has instructed all Catholic institutions in the archdiocese of Dublin to close down on any more applications pending a full investigation of the matter. We are now informed by the Embassy in Washington that Monsignor John O'Grady, Secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Charities, Monsignor Edward Swanstrom, Executive Director of Bishops' War Relief, and Monsignor Vincent Cooke, Director of Charities in the Archdiocese of Chicago, will be in Dublin on the 26th and 27th August and would like us to arrange a conference on the whole matter, apparently with a view to the 'processing' of Irish orphans.⁴ This, of course, is a very delicate thing to be asked to do, for two reasons. Firstly, there would be a considerable danger of public criticism if official backing seemed to be available for this traffic. Secondly, we shall have to be careful not to do anything which would embarrass the Archbishop.

Accordingly, I think our proper line is to tell the Embassy in Washington to inform the proposed delegates that the Irish Government cannot see its way to take part in arrangements designed to facilitate the removal of Irish children from this country, but that their desire to investigate the matter while in Dublin has been conveyed to His Grace the Archbishop. For the adoption of such a line it might be well to get the concurrence of the Department of Health.