Extracts from a letter from Seán Ronan to Garth Healy (New York)
(345/96) (Confidential) (Copy)

Please refer to your minutes of 6th June¹ and 2nd July, 1951,² on the subject of the adoption of Irish children by persons resident outside the State, and in particular in regard to the letter of 25th June, 1951,³ and enclosures, you received from Messrs. Roger Greene & Sons, Solicitors, in connection with the proposed adoption of an Irish child from St. Brigid’s Orphanage, Dublin by Mrs. [name redacted in original]⁴ of [address redacted] Brooklyn, New York.

We fail to understand what basis Mr. Greene had for saying that he understood from this Department that the Consular Service could be availed of to make enquiries regarding the fosterparents, as it has been our consistent policy to confine ourselves to dealing with the passport applications of children being sent abroad for adoption. We have informed Mr. Greene that our representatives abroad are not in a position to make satisfactory enquiries regarding intending fosterparents on the lines he suggests, and you should take a similar line with any such requests you may receive in the future. As regards the suggestion in the penultimate paragraph of your minute of 6th June, I must inform you that we do not intend to circularise the numerous orphanages here with a view to impressing upon them the need to give clear and detailed instructions to their clients as to their requirements from intending fosterparents, as we understand that the orphanages, at least in the Archdiocese of Dublin have received very definite instructions in the matter from His Grace the Archbishop. I enclosed a statement of His Grace’s conditions in my semi-official letter of 5th June, 1951, to Mr. Scully.⁵ A further copy is enclosed for your own information and should, of course, be treated as strictly confidential. My semi-official letters of 4th May⁶ and 5th June⁷ to Mr. Scully regarding adoptions outline the present position and our policy on the subject.

With regard to the final paragraph of your minute of 6th June, we are not impressed with the possibility of retaining the sympathy or goodwill of intending fosterparents for Anti-Partition purposes, as we feel that the great majority of them have no connections with this country and that they simply look to Ireland to obtain children for adoption because the ‘demand’ in the US for children far exceeds the ‘supply’ and adoption matters are not as yet regulated by law here. Moreover, there is no ‘colour’ problem here so that intending fosterparents in the US know that Irish children are ‘guaranteed’ in that respect.

[matter omitted]