Was it explained how Roberts managed to adopt Irish children? [View All]

[muriel_volestrangler]

Sorry if this has been settled already here on DU (without search, it's not easy to tell), but the latest thing I can find written about thiswas the comment on this blog (end of page, dated Sept 5th):

Under Irish system of adoption, both private placements and private assessments are illegal. Additionally the 1993 Hague Convention on protection and co-operation in respect of inter-country adoption, forbids any improper financial gain from adoption.

The (British) Sunday Times, this past weekend reported that there are apparently no records of Judge Roberts and his wife adopting these two children through official channels in Ireland and the matter is being looked into.

The circumstances of the adoptions certainly raise questions from the perspective of Irish adoption law and whether Judge Roberts and his wife have broken these laws, whether wittingly or not.

http://www.isthatlegal.org/archives/2005/08/blondeness_and.html

though I can't find the Sunday Times article referred to. I think with the apparent impossibility of legal adoption of Irish children by anyone other than an Irish resident, this is a valid question - someone who uses strange tricks (such as shipping the mothers out to a Latin American country) to get round another country's laws is not suitable to be the top judge in a country. If he did it all legally and above board, then the subject should be dropped, of course.