Adopted Child Dispute Settled

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Irish Voice News

Adopted Child Dispute Settled

July 16, 2008

By April Drew

A GALWAY couple who adopted their daughter from Michigan while living in Massachusetts and were told by the Adoption Authority of Ireland that her adoption would not be recognized by Irish law got word last week that their daughter would finally be granted Irish citizenship after months of fighting the system.

Michael Connolly and Barbara Nee, who came to the U.S. in 1991, adopted now 22-month-old Grace when she was just five days old from Michigan. The married couple, who resided in Boston, brought Grace back to Massachusetts where they began planning a move back to their hometown of Clifton, Galway.

“We were so excited to bring Grace home to our families. We want to bring her up in Ireland,” Michael told the Irish Voice in an interview last February.

However, when they applied for Grace’s Irish passport they were told they must first register her with the Adoption Authority of Ireland. Pretty soon they were made aware that Grace’s adoption could not be recognized in Ireland because the laws in Ireland differ from those in the U.S.

Under the Maastricht Convention each state in the U.S. is considered a separate country because they each have their own adoption rules, and because Grace was adopted in one state and brought back to live in another, this was causing conflict under Irish adoption law.

In February, Connolly and Nee traveled back to Ireland, met with the Adoption Authority and hired a lawyer. They were forced to put their plans for returning to Galway on the long finger until they sorted out their daughter’s citizenship issue.

Although an arduous process, an attorney from Gallagher Shatter solicitors, unavailable for comment when contacted, successfully argued that since the couple’s adoption was recognized in Massachusetts it should also be recognized in Ireland.

The Irish Voice tried to contact Connolly and Nee at their Boston numbers but all have been disconnected. It seems that they got their wish after all and are back in Ireland raising their daughter the way they planned to from day one.

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