Baby home survivor hits out at HSE for ‘negligence’
By Maurice Garvey
GROWING up as a survivor of a Mother and Baby home was tough for Clondalkin man David Kinsella.
Even tougher, was discovering many years later that his paternal mother died in England in 1986, while David was working nearby.
David Kinsella (right) with Tony Kelly
“I was working with London Victoria British Rail at the time, only 15 minutes away from where she died,” said David (58), who would have been in his mid-20s at the time.
Kinsella spent four traumatic years at the St Patrick’s Mother and Baby Home on the Navan Road, and never saw his birth mother Elizabeth McEneff again.
In light of the more recent illegal adoption scandals, Kinsella is still fighting to receive information on both his paternal parents and blasts the HSE for a “record of negligence.”
It wasn’t until 2005 that a social worker informed him of his mother’s death and made a contact arrangement with his half-sister in England.
“When I met Emily (half-sister) she told me my mother died of bowel cancer at the age of 61. It is a very serious thing. I get check-ups by the GP to make sure I don’t have it. The HSE never told me she died and have withheld other information about her.”
Kinsella has asked the HSE for information under the Data Protection Act, including details of Elizabeth’s stay in St Patrick’s, entry/discharge dates, consent forms, her health, character and personal information.
Refused the request
In a letter seen by The Echo dating from 2013, the HSE refused the request “by virtue of the Data Protection Act.”
Kinsella and a number of survivors are preparing for a protest on July 4, to highlight the need for full access to their adoption records.
He continued: “We picked Independence Day to highlight the banished babies from Ireland to the USA. The integrated protest at Christchurch will feature Bethany Home survivor’s Derek Leinster, Residential institutional Survivors Network, United Survivors, and Margaret McGuirken, founder of Savia.
“The sad thing about the illegal adoption records, is that there are other adoptees out there who don’t know vital information about their parents.”
