Petition demands identity rights for Irish adoptees

A petition has been launched to demand identity rights for adoptees in Ireland.

Click/tap to sign the petition

Created by Maree Ryan-O'Brien of Tullamore, Co Offaly, herself an adoptee, the petition aims to help more than 150,000 Irish adoptees gain the right to access their birth certificates, health and heritage information and adoption files. There is currently no legislation allowing automatic access, despite such equality and identity rights being available to other citizens.

I'm sure most Irish family historians will sympathise with Maree's view that old values and secrecy from another era have no place in a modern society (see her opinion piece in the Irish Times).

As of this morning, the petition, which is addressed to Minister for Children Katherine Zappone, has more than 3,200 signatures, and is pushing on towards the 4,000 milestone. Why not give it a helping hand?