An 81-year-old Irish woman has said she still has not come out of the clouds after meeting her estranged mother for the first time after 60 years of searching.

Eileen Macken grew up in a Bethany Home orphanage and had never met her birth mother.

Last year, having started searching when she was 19, Ms Macken contacted RTÉ's Liveline and made an appeal to track her mother down.

Earlier this year Ms Macken said that with the help of a genealogist she had managed to find her mother who was 103 years old and was living in Scotland.

When she found out that her mother was still alive, Ms Macken told RTÉ News that "just to touch her, it would mean so much".

Last month Ms Macken's wish came true as she travelled to Scotland with her husband George, along with her daughter and son-in-law, to meet her mother, Elizabeth.

"I went over to see her and she is the most beautiful lady," Ms Macken said.

Eileen Macken, who was born in the Bethany Home in Dublin, has been reunited with her mother after 60 years of searching for her pic.twitter.com/Gc3X7WRr02 — RTÉ News (@rtenews) May 9, 2019

She said that her own family were worried about her travelling over but she decided to "take the bull by the horns" and make the journey.

Ms Macken said she travelled to her mother's home and knocked on the door, to meet a man who turned out to be her half-brother.

"I told him I was from Ireland and that I had found my mum here and could we come in to see her, and he said 'certainly'," she said.

She said that she had a "great chat" with her mother during her three-day trip to Scotland.

"She was reading the newspaper and when she saw me, I said we were from Ireland and she said 'I was born in Ireland'," Ms Macken said.

"She was thrilled and she never let go of my hand."

Ms Macken's mother will celebrate her 104th birthday this weekend.

Ms Macken said she has been so happy since coming home from the trip to Scotland that she has not done any work in the house since.

"I don't think I'll ever come down out of the cloud."