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DNA helps adopted people overseas become Irish citizens.
https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/2024/08/05/how-dna-pierces-the-silence-to-help-adopted-people-overseas-become-irish-citizens/Nothing illustrates the power of DNA to break through the lies and silence that surround so many family stories as in the case of John Portmann.
Mr Portmann (61), a retired American college professor, was born in Phoenix, Arizona on June 6th, 1963, into the care of the Sisters of Mercy nuns in the city. His unmarried biological mother Térese Delahanty from an Irish family in Minneapolis gave him up for adoption.
Mr Portmann knew he was adopted from an early age, but he had no idea who his biological parents were.
All that changed with a DNA test in 2019 which revealed, somewhat to his astonishment, that he was 100 per cent Irish. Three years later he was told by Department of Foreign Affairs officials in Washington that he was the first to be able to claim Irish citizenship through DNA.
Mr Portmann (61), a retired American college professor, was born in Phoenix, Arizona on June 6th, 1963, into the care of the Sisters of Mercy nuns in the city. His unmarried biological mother Térese Delahanty from an Irish family in Minneapolis gave him up for adoption.
Mr Portmann knew he was adopted from an early age, but he had no idea who his biological parents were.
All that changed with a DNA test in 2019 which revealed, somewhat to his astonishment, that he was 100 per cent Irish. Three years later he was told by Department of Foreign Affairs officials in Washington that he was the first to be able to claim Irish citizenship through DNA.
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