Taken: Experiences of Forced Adoption
A politically charged book about forced adoption
Mothers and adult adoptees recount their often harrowing experiences.
Karen Constantine was sent to a Catholic-run mother and baby home at the age of 15. The priest who collected her from the family home wasn’t just a priest, he was also her social worker. Karen’s poverty stricken parents paid handsomely to have her taken off their hands, anticipating she would give her baby up for adoption, and then return to ‘normal’.
During her pregnancy, from six to nine months, she labored every day in the on-site laundry, filling and emptying industrial washers and dryers. The priest / social worker checked in on Karen regularly, looking after her soul and telling her how bad she was. This was 1978.
Taken: Experiences of Forced Adoption was written by Karen as she dug into her own history, trying to understand decisions made by family, Church and state. Realising the extent of this dark era, she chose to document the experiences of other mothers, of adoptees, of families and of the campaigners who fight for genuine apology and redress.
Hundreds of thousands of women had their babies taken from them, during 1950s – 1980s. Most never recovered from trauma. Some have yet to find out what happened to their newborns.
This book is as much a rallying cry as it is an anthology of personal tragedies born of barbaric practices.
About Karen Constantine
Karen Constantine has always believed in speaking truth to power, in making positive change, and fighting for the rights of others, since her incarceration into Father Hudson’s mother and baby home when she was fifteen and expecting her first baby. ‘Taken’ is her first non-fiction work. She intends to publish two further books, her memoir, Rattlechops, and When Dogs Barked at Cars, a novel based on a mother and baby home.
Taken: Experiences of Forced Adoption is published at a time when historical forced adoption is gaining wider public attention. The movie, Small Things Like These, released this fall and starring Cillian Murphy, follows in the footsteps of Philomena, The Magdalene Sisters, The Women in the Wall, Into the Fire, The Removed and The Marian Hotel.
Paperback and ebook
available on Amazon
“As a child of the 60s, I found this book staggering. I had no idea that the cruel practice of forced adoption was commonplace.
– Georgie Glen, Actress, Call the Midwife
Each of these deeply personal stories chart vulnerability, cruelty and life long pain for all those involved.
These voices must not only be heard… but heeded.”
Returning to the mother and baby home
In 2017, I was driving south. On a whim, I took a detour to look at the place where I’d been incarcerated. It triggered an emotional avalanche. Suddenly I wanted to know why? Why me? It was a transformative moment; it lead me to apply for my records and then to Birkbeck University where I completed a Masters of Fine Art in creative writing by writing a girl-to-teen memoir. Over the last year I’ve also written Taken: Experiences of Forced Adoption.
Recently, that whim propelled me to send in my invoice for my unpaid labor (I’m still awaiting settlement!).
Recently I looked again at the photograph of myself, taken by a stranger, as I stood outside the home. I wanted a record of the moment I voluntarily returned. I see my hands awkwardly clasped. I see a worry-worn face and my unresolved gaze. I see my girlish uncertainty and fear.
Reviews on Amazon
Informative and full of emotion
Having heard Karen speak at an event I promised I would read the book to increase my awareness of a practise I was blind to. The individual experiences are well captured and put plenty of meat on the bones as to why an apology is essential. Well done Karen for putting this across.
Julie H.
Heartbreaking story that deserves to be told
This book is heartbreaking. It is a beautiful collection of interviews by the author, whose own story is equally worthy of telling.
An important read to understand our (horrifyingly recent) history.
A long overdue book, and the author this important topic justice.
PS.
Poignant, raw, and essential
This book is one of the most important works I’ve read in a long time. Full of real experiences and heartbreaking realities, alongside poignant healing and a look to the future, Karen highlights how the scandal of forced adoption still permeates and affects our lives today.
Daisy C.
Taken:
Experiences of Forced Adoption
