The Irish prime minister has apologised in parliament to 126 people who were illegally adopted between 1946 and 1969, saying the disclosures were “another chapter from the very dark history of our country”.

As campaigners said the number quoted was likely to be the tip of the iceberg, Leo Varadkar said: “What was done was wrong. What was done robbed children, our fellow citizens, of their identity. It was an historic wrong that we must face up to – and again, on behalf of the government, I’m very sorry for it.”



The taoiseach’s apology followed a government statement revealing that 126 births were illegally registered by St Patrick’s Guild, a Catholic adoption agency. Those affected, now in their 50s, 60s and 70s, may not know they were adopted.



The government launched an independent review and said the records of the other adoption societies would be reviewed.

“This is potentially very traumatic for a lot of people and I am so sorry for it,” Varadkar told the Dáil.

His apology came just days after Ireland voted by a landslide to repeal a clause in the constitution underpinning a near-total ban on abortion in a sign of the waning moral authority of the Catholic church.

At a press conference on Wednesday Varadkar said: “People are going to find out that they were adopted in this way having thought for the past 50 or 60 years that they were the natural child of the people who brought them up.



“It’s going to be really difficult for those parents who did bring up those people. They are going to have to have a very difficult conversation with the children they brought up.”



He added: “We have now very clear evidence that there were illegal registrations at the St Patrick’s Guild, and we feel we have to share that information with the people who were affected … They want to know who they are. They want to know what their birth story is.”



The revelations opened “what is another chapter from the very dark history in our country. But we are a different country now and I think the results from the [abortion] referendum at the weekend show that,” he said.



One woman who was illegally adopted in 1954 said the 126 people referred to in the statement was “just the tip of the iceberg”.



Theresa Hiney Tinggal traced her birth family through DNA to Tipperary after discovering at the age of 48 she had been adopted, but found her birth mother had died. “For a woman in the [19]50s, it was a big shame” to become pregnant, she told the Irish broadcaster RTE.



Her adoptive mother collected her when she was two days old, she said. “And the nurse said to her: ‘Go out the side door because Bridget [her birth mother] might be looking out the window’. And the nurse and my [adoptive] mother took me to the church in Donnycarney and had me baptised as Theresa Hiney.”



The new disclosure follows revelations in recent years about the Magdalene Laundries, run by the Catholic church to house “fallen women”. Thousands of women who had babies outside marriage or were considered morally wayward were incarcerated and used as free labour. Many had their babies forcibly removed and put up for adoption.



Five years ago, the Irish government apologised for the state’s collusion in the Magdalene Laundries. The scandal is one reason for the draining of the church’s moral authority in Ireland.



A statement released this week by Tusla, Ireland’s state-run child and family agency, said it had identified 126 cases of illegal registration of births by St Patrick’s Guild, and it was trying to identify, locate and inform those involved.



It added: “We cannot say with certainty how long this process will take.” Tracing people was slow and labour-intensive.



“This is an extremely sensitive issue and one which we acknowledge may cause upset and anxiety for those affected, as well as adopted people, adoptive parents and birth parents across the country.”



According to the Adoption Rights Alliance, “St Patrick’s Guild did not run a mother and baby home. Instead babies were sent to St Patrick’s Infant Hospital, Temple Hill before being adopted. Mothers were not present at Temple Hill and St Patrick’s Guild have been very uncooperative in providing information about what conditions were like in the hospital … There were also babies in Temple Hill who were adopted through agencies other than St Patrick’s Guild.



“St Patrick’s Guild was involved in the secret export of 572 children to the US for adoption from the 1940s to the 1970s, which was more than any other adoption agency.”

