This Irish granddad didn’t find out he was adopted until he was 50.
Now 73, Don Byrne from Dublin has set out on a social media quest to find out who his real parents are, with the help of his kids.
He’d originally started searching for his birth family as soon he found out, but red tape scuppered his investigations, the Daily Mail reports.
Don’s search has now gone viral after his children launched an online campaign with the hashtag #Whoisdonbyrne, so far reaching thousands of people worldwide.
Don told FEMAIL:
Finding out I was adopted gave me a feeling of something missing and it just grew and grew. Sometimes I think it might have been better if I’d never found out.
I was very happy with my adoptive family and they were the only parents I knew. It would mean so much for me for my wife and children to know what their real family name is.
He only discovered the truth after his adoptive parents died, and his Aunt Hannah decided he needed to know the truth.
Don had no information to go on, so he went to the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin for answers – while there was no organised adoption in Ireland back in the year he was born, 1943, the church arranged things unofficially.
There he found information that seemed to match his adoptive mother’s name and address, but when he went to the hospital he’d been born in he was told they couldn’t give him any information without his mother’s name, for privacy reasons.
After reaching this dead end his children Andy, Tommy and Donna decided to use social media to kick-start the search again.
At 73 years of age my father still doesn't know who he really is. For 50 years Don Byrne grew up believing that he was…
Posted by Andy Byrne on Thursday, 3 December 2015
Don said:
What they’ve done has given me great heart. I always cry buckets when I see the TV show Long Lost Family. I watch it with a pile of tissues ready.
When I see these people meeting this whole family they never knew about I wish that could be me.
Please share Don’s story and help him find his birth family!
