Adoption rights campaigner and former lady mayoress' life to be celebrated

A celebration of life is set to take place next week for the former lady mayoress of Cork, Ursula Shannon, who died in hospital on Christmas Day after a short illness “fought bravely, with great dignity and humour”.

The 60-year-old adoption rights campaigner, who lived in Donnybrook in Cork, gave written evidence to the British parliament three years ago in which she said she was “trafficked to Ireland”.

In advocating for increased rights for adopted children of unmarried women born between 1949 and 1976, she said that before she was Ursula Shannon she was Ursula O’Keeffe — and “before that again” she was Bernadette McNally.

“Bernadette McNally was born in Paddington General Hospital on February 18, 1964, to an Irish mother who had been working in England since 1958,” she wrote.

“My birth father was also Irish, from Galway. My mother, at the time of my birth, was 25 — so not a young girl that came over on the boat to have me.

“I was trafficked to Ireland for adoption. I wasn’t the only one.

“From the late 50s and right up to the late 70s, and a small few into the 80s, nearly 1,300 babies [were] sent back.

“I actually find that number appalling; so many children taken from their country of birth.”

Ms Shannon said that she had no rights as a baby, and that “strangers” made decisions on her life.

“I don’t know how my mother was pressured into giving me up as she now has dementia, but I do know the girls were pressured, bullied, belittled, berated by people in power like social workers, nurses, nuns, and not forgetting in my case the Catholic Church — or as I like to refer to them ... the moral police without the morals.

“I was not an orphan. I had unmarried parents and that was all. It was a family of sorts and it was mine.”

She said that she had come across birth mothers who had tried to put their time in mother and baby homes “in the deepest recesses of their minds”.

“They are afraid to tell their now children, afraid to tell their husbands, afraid to tell their siblings. Afraid of rejection by the child they gave up,” she wrote.

“That takes a mental hold on people. I’ve seen depression, alcoholism, and in some a hardness to protect themselves.”

Ms Shannon said that she had dealt with two countries with two different sets of laws surrounding adoption.

“My human rights don’t seem to matter to the powers that be in both countries. I seem to be in a grey area.

“I asked my social worker was my adoption illegal. His reply to me was: ‘It was an accepted practice.’”

Ms Shannon said that she was fortunate to have been able to trace her birth mother.

“Due to her condition, I have never had a conversation with her. I have two lovely half-siblings and we have worked hard on our relationship,” she said.

“I did say to my sister… I would love to be your friend — we can work on the sister thing. My mother at the start of her condition was found wandering around the streets looking for the baby. It warms my heart that she might have been looking for me.”

Ursula Shannon is survived by her husband, Fianna Fáil councillor Terry Shannon, and their four children — Robert, Conor, Katie, and Emily — her granddaughter Bláthnaid, siblings Sarah and Dave, mother-in-law Betty, extended family, and friends.

Ms Shannon will lie in repose at Temple Hill Funeral Home, Boreenmanna Rd, tomorrow from 3pm to 4pm.

A celebration of life will take place at noon on Monday at the Island Crematorium, Rocky Island, Ringaskiddy.

Mourners are asked to donate to Adoption Rights Alliance in lieu of flowers.