Memorandum by Joe Horan
(345/96)

Under the United States Displaced Persons Act of 1948, as amended, orphans are being admitted, for adoption, to the United States under a special non-quota immigration visa system. Under the said Act as amended the United States Consular Office may grant visas to orphans of various European countries, including Ireland, who are being brought into the United States for adoption either by individuals or by institutions. The conditions under which visas may be given are prescribed in Section 2 (F) of the Displaced Persons Act 1948, as amended. This Section is quoted in the aide mémoire handed to me by Mr. La Freniere¹ towards the end of October last.

At that time Mr. La Freniere informed me that from the 1st July, 1949, to date the Embassy here had issued about 140 visas to orphans who were going to the United States for adoption, i.e. about 10 per month. Since Mr. La Freniere's visit I have arranged to have referred to me all applications for the issue of passports to children leaving the State for adoption and from what I have seen so far I would say we had in fact received on an average 10 applications per month.

In the course of dealing with these applications I have had occasion to interview and discuss the question generally with the Rev. Mother Superior of St. Patrick's Home on the Navan Road, where there are about thirty illegitimate children; the Rev. Mother Superior of the County Home, Tuam, Co. Galway; the Matron of the Bethany Home, 98 Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin; Mr. Giff of the Children's Home in Townsend Street; and Mr. Crowe of the Catholic Girls Protection Society, Cork. I also interviewed one person who was actually here in this country for the purpose of getting a child to adopt.

This lady was the wife of a N.C.O. in a United States Air Base in England and I gathered from my conversation with her that among the several United States Air Bases in Great Britain this country has become quite popular as a happy hunting ground for persons looking for children to adopt and several actually in the past few years have in fact come here and taken children whom they will eventually bring with them when they return to the United States.² The person in question also told me that she did not bother to try to find a child to adopt in Great Britain as she understood that in Great Britain there was far too much red tape preceding the obtaining of a child.

From the Mother Superior of St. Patrick's Home, I learned that His Grace the Archbishop of Dublin, though in principle opposed to the taking of children out of the country in this fashion, has given his agreement in individual cases on the understanding that the adopting parents are vetted by the Conference of Catholic Charities of which there is usually a branch in each parish in the United States. From our point of view here this is very satisfactory - satisfactory also from the point of view of persons in charge of institutions like the Navan Road. The Conference of Catholic Charities furnish, I understand, a comprehensive report on the adopting parents and also follow up the career of the child when it has arrived in the States and see that it is in fact adopted according to law. Even then they still continue to follow it up. This practice is also enforced in the Diocese of Meath and I myself in my correspondence on individual applications with various Catholic institutions throughout the country have brought to the notice of a number of religious superiors of institutions the fact that the Conference of Catholic Charities is at their disposal in matters of this kind.

I also discussed the matter at length with Mrs. Glover, the Matron of Bethany Home in Orwell Road, Rathgar. From her I gathered that the Committee of the Bethany Home are extremely careful before handing over a child to anybody. Before a child is handed over

1. The Committee insist that the adopting parents or at least one of them, see the child.
2. That satisfactory references are produced, including references from clergymen.
3. That the adopting parents are regular church goers.
4. That neither of the adopting parents are a divorced person.
5. That the adopting parents, or parent, are interviewed by the Committee and approved.

I gathered from Mr. Giff that the practice is similar in the institution in Townsend Street, of which he is a Director.

From all of these interviews and conversations, I gathered that in the cases of all institutions, both Catholic and non-Catholic, the Superiors do in fact follow up the child after it leaves them and that in fact they do receive regular reports on its welfare. It would also seem that in all cases the children that left the State were in fact in due course legally adopted in the United States.

In dealing with these applications myself I do not authorise the issue of a passport until I am satisfied on the following points:-

1. That the person handing over the child for adoption is in fact the guardian of the child and has also been authorised by the mother to arrange for its adoption.
2. That satisfactory references, including references from clergy men have been produced in respect of the adopting parents.
3. In cases where a satisfactory report has been furnished on the adopting persons by the Conference of Catholic Charities, I take that as satisfactory evidence of the parents' character, etc.

In all these cases we have to be satisfied on the following points:-

1. Is the person who is handing over the child legally entitled to do so.
2. We must be reasonably satisfied that the person taking the child for adoption is a person of good character, able and willing to rear a child, prepared to bring it up as the mother would have wished to bring it up had she been able to do so, and that the person genuinely proposes to adopt the child according to law and rear it as his own. With regard to this latter point it is well known that in the United States of America there are many private institutions of a shady character that, so to speak, do a business in children for adoption.