NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
BY DEBORAH MCALEESE – 03 SEPTEMBER 2014
A child migrant who was transported to Australia from a Northern Ireland children’s home was allowed to believe he was an orphan for over four decades, the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry has heard.
Des McDaid, whose heartbreaking story as a child migrant was featured in the 2010 film Oranges and Sunshine, said he was 48 years old when he discovered that his mother was still alive.
After years of searching for information about her, mother and son have since been reunited.
“I had always wondered about my mother and her whereabouts, especially on my birthday. To the age of 48 I had no other reason to think that I wasn’t an orphan,” Mr McDaid told the inquiry yesterday via video-link.
He was the first child migrant to give evidence to the abuse inquiry which is currently investigating the child migrant programme that saw 131 children transported from Northern Ireland care institutions to Australia, many without their parents’ consent.
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