The reality of adoption reunions

Motherhood Silenced: The Experience Of Natural Mothers On Adoption Reunion, by Ruth JA Kelly, Liffey Press NPG, €18.95.

Unmarried and pregnant in Ireland decades ago, a respondent to Ruth Kelly's survey of birth mothers who have since had contact with their children states: “When I think of it, an animal would fight for its child, but I didn't.

“I just did what I was told to do, and I thanked them for it.”