A woman who was born at the notorious Tuam Mother and Baby Home has revealed the harrowing tale of her childhood, which involved being trafficked out of Ireland. As a young girl, Christina Carroll was taken from her foster home in Headford, Co. Galway and sent to the United States in 1967, where she lived under abusive conditions.

The journey across the Atlantic was orchestrated by an unrelated man and his wife, who exploited Christina as a laborer upon her arrival in New Jersey. The Department of Foreign Affairs had issued a passport for her, despite the fact that the man had no legitimate connection to her.

During her early years, Christina was under the care of Galway County Council until she reached the age of 16. The council had rejected multiple adoption requests by Denis McHugh, an older individual originally from Claremorris, Co. Mayo. He persistently sought to adopt Christina but was turned down each time.

In a striking move, the council had instructed the Department of External Affairs, now known as Foreign Affairs, to deny any passport applications for Christina made on Mr. McHugh’s behalf. Despite these measures, Mr. McHugh managed to secure a passport under false pretenses.

Local authority records from that era contain Mr. McHugh’s false claims of kinship with Christina. However, he eventually conceded that he had lied, a fact corroborated by Christina’s maternal grandfather, who confirmed no family ties existed between them.

Other local authority files from the time note that Mr McHugh had claimed he was related to Ms Carroll. But he later admitted he had lied about this. Ms Carroll’s maternal grandfather also confirmed Mr McHugh was no relation.

The files also recorded Ms Carroll’s deep reluctance to leave her foster home and go to the US.

Notes on the file show PJ McEllin solicitors, on behalf of Mr McHugh, first began applying for custody of the minor in 1959, and continued to press for the council to act until the child turned 16.

‘My client is getting very impatient,’ read one letter.

In reply, the council said: ‘We do not give children for American adoption.’

Other notes said the council considered the child should not be transferred to the McHughs because ‘of their advanced age’.

‘And it is doubtful that they could care properly for the child. Inform the Department of External Affairs in case an application is made for a passport,’ the handwritten note said.

Another letter sent to Mr McHugh’s solicitor read: ‘Although stated in letters on more than one occasion by Mr and Mrs McHugh that they are related to Christina, Mr McHugh said that when he called to this office there is in fact no relationship and this is confirmed by Christina’s grandfather.

‘I am instructed to inform you that the Galway Health Authority [Galway County Council] is not prepared to allow Christina to be taken from her foster mother.’

The letter was signed by Eithne McCormack, the Children’s Officer with the council.

Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday this week, Ms Carroll – who is now 75 – said that despite Ms McCormack’s efforts, she remembers the day when a car drew up to take her to Dublin Airport.

‘My foster mother was crying and I was crying. I didn’t want to go,’ she recalled.

‘But they got away with it. That was Mother Ireland… I had to grow up fast.’

Although she was born in the notorious Tuam home, Ms Carroll said her time with the McHughs in New Jersey was one of the worst of her life.

‘They treated me like a slave. They made me call them “mammy” and “daddy”,’ she said.

‘They got me a job [as a maid] and I had to hand over all the money to them because they said it was so expensive to bring me to America.’

Ms Carroll said she left the Tuam home when she was eight years old and was placed by the council with a foster family in Headford, where she was relatively happy.

During the day she attended the local Presentation Convent school.

But because of her background in the home, she said the nuns did not think she was worth educating and that instead she was ‘put to skivvying’ when she should have been in class.

‘There were four of us from the home in the school and we were ignored by the teachers. We were just there to work and clean,’ she told the MoS.

‘The nuns didn’t want me to be educated as the only thing I was any good for was skivvying. 

‘I was taught this because I was the child who was constantly taken out of the class to do chores and gardening. They told me that they were training me for life. I missed some classes every day.

‘When I was around 10 years old, I remember a man coming to the school and I had to serve him tea. I saw him giving money to the nuns,’ she recalled.

‘I believe he may have been a cousin of one of the nuns.

‘He also used to come to see me at the farmhouse [her foster home] and I heard them saying that he was from Mayo and was home from America – he would give me gifts of aftershave.

‘I heard him telling them what a great place America was and that I would have a great life there. This was the first I heard about it.

‘He used to write to me a few times a year and the couple [her foster parents] were very upset after reading these letters and cried a lot afterwards.

‘I now know that he was a pervert and was grooming me all those years,’ Ms Carroll said.

‘He sent me a picture of him and a woman he said was his wife.

‘The Child Officer tried to stop me going to America with this man because I was only a child and it was wrong, but she was overruled by Galway County Council and the nuns.

‘I knew nothing of this until the old woman [her foster mother] sat me down and explained what was happening.

‘She explained my situation and that this man wanted to take me to America. I didn’t want to go and was very distressed and the old woman was crying too.

‘Unknown to me, they got my passport. They arranged for me to be brought to Dublin Airport and I was left on my own.

‘My mind went blank. I couldn’t think of anything. I hadn’t a clue about anything until the stewardess came and put me on the plane. I didn’t know what was going on,’ she said.

‘I arrived at Kennedy Airport. The man and his so–called wife were there but she was not the woman in the photo that he had sent me – two completely different people. They collected me and we went on a train.’

The year was 1967. Until 1970, county councils were the acting health authorities until they were replaced by the regional health boards, and later the HSE.

As a ‘boarded out’ or foster child who had turned 16, Ms Carroll appears not to have been in the care of the council when she was taken to the US.

She said Mr McHugh was already in his 70s when she went to live with him. He died in 1976.

The couple took her to live in their home in Jersey City, where she was made cook and clean and she was also sent out to get a job.

‘They talked about me constantly, saying that I would never be any good. I had a bed in a corner of a room that was wide open and the man watched me getting undressed and then dressed in the morning. I never had any privacy.

‘They were cruel. I hated being there. The way they treated me, they wanted a slave.

‘I was put working for a Jewish couple who were very cruel. I was starved most of the time and had to do all the housework.

‘I worked mostly seven days a week but my pay was taken by the man so I had no money – they made me sign away all my money,’ Ms Carroll recalled.

‘After I turned 18 years old, I went to a hostel run by nuns and got a job as a nurse’s aide at the hospital but the man stalked me – he would be waiting for me when I came out from the hospital. I told him to stop but he persisted.

‘In order to get away from the man, I went with a boyfriend but he made me pregnant and disappeared,’ she said.

Ms Carroll’s first son was born in 1970 and put up for adoption by a Catholic charity. She was reunited with him several years ago through a social worker in Galway.

‘He travelled over to Ireland and the social worker brought me to the Merlin Park Hotel to meet him. To tell you the truth I felt nothing when I saw him.

‘But I’m in touch with him now. He’s gay and he’s married and he’s happy. That’s all I care about.’

Ms Carroll – who married in her late 20s after she eventually returned to Ireland – also has four daughters, another son and two grandchildren.

‘I saved enough in the end to get back [to Ireland]. I always wanted to come back.’

Ms Carroll, who took part in a podcast about the Tuam home narrated by Oscar winner Cillian Murphy several years ago, said she is telling her full story now for the first time so people will know ‘what went on in those days’.

‘They should know… the way we were treated. Like we were nothing. We were never told anything. It happened to me when I left Tuam and then when they took me to America.’

Ms Carroll said: ‘Before I left Tuam at eight years of age, I was told nothing about what was happening.

‘I noticed some children went missing and the only way I knew something was up was when we were setting the table.

‘A person came and showed us where to put the knife and fork – then another child said that this meant we were leaving.’

Liam Tansey, a retired social worker who works with survivors of the Tuam home and is familiar with Ms Carroll’s case, said the State has a case to answer.

‘It is extremely serious for a child to be taken out of the country against her own will and the will of the CO [Child Officer] at the time. This is trafficking.

‘The county council had a duty of care to Christina. I would have known of the social worker [Child Officer) who looked after this case. She was extremely professional. She said: “No, this was a child who should not be allowed to go.” It’s in the file.

‘That raises alarm bells. But someone somewhere authorised for her to be brought to America anyway. Who signed off on that passport? It’s a mystery.

‘This man was relentless in his pursuit of Christina. And he told loads of lies. He was completely unsuited.

‘I’ve done assessments for foster carers and adoptions all my life and as far as I’m concerned, you wouldn’t even give this man a second interview with the kind of attitude he had.

‘Once you started to check out and discover all the lies he told, the case would’ve been closed straight away,’ Mr Tansey said.

Galway County Council apologised in 2021 for its role in the running of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home.

‘We are profoundly sorry that, as a local authority, this council did not have the foresight or courage to at all times ensure that the welfare of those entrusted to its care was paramount, and to be kinder, more compassionate and more charitable,’ council chief executive Kevin Kelly said.

In response to queries relating to Ms Carroll’s case, Galway county secretary Jean Brann said: ‘Galway County Council acknowledges the seriousness of the issues raised by Ms Christina Carroll.

‘The information she has outlined has not previously been presented to the council before receipt of this media query.

‘As the matters referenced relate to events said to have taken place several decades ago, and concern functions that were the responsibility of the relevant health authority at the time, the council is unable to comment on the specific claims made,’ Ms Brann said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it would not comment on ‘the details of individual cases’.

PJ McEllin’s solicitor’s firm in Claremorris, Co. Mayo, is no longer in business. A former partner told the MoS this week: ‘This happened long before my time.’

The Presentation Sisters Ireland did not respond to a request for comment.