Mum wins battle to prove daughter is Irish
A six-year-old African girl will not be sent to an African orphanage, after DBA tests revealed her mother's story – that her father was an Irish soldier working with the UN in Eritrea – is true. By Ciaran Farrell - 18/01/10
Her mother Martha Woldu Hagos has been fighting since 3003 to prove her daughter is half-Irish, reports the Irish Examiner.
But the department wanted approval "by formal means" and last year a DNA test was finally carried out.
The Department of Foreign Affairs had not accepted that Martina Padwick was the daughter of Martin Padwick, a Cork solider who died in 2002 after coming back from a UN peacekeeping mission in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea.
Martha Woldu Hagos met Padwick while she was working in the kitchen at the UN compound. She told a Sunday newspaper she was ecstatic that her daughter’s identity had been acknowledged.
"The DFA wrote to me last week to say the DNA test had proved that Martin was Martina’s father. I don’t know what to say, I am so happy. Actually, I am the happiest woman in the whole of Eritrea right now."
Ms Hagos’ Irish solicitor, Anthony Joyce, of Dublin law firm Anthony Joyce & Co, said Ms Hagos had suffered discrimination in her homeland as she had given birth to a foreign child.
"For all of her life Martina has been living in poverty in Eritrea and her mother, Martha, has suffered discrimination for being the mother of a foreign child. Their situation was so desperate Martina was close to having to give her daughter to a local orphanage to ensure her wellbeing."
Related Articles
Headlines
-
News
Woman to sue for late diagnosis
-
Opinions
Burton miscast as new headmistress
-
Politics
Banking likely to dominate Fine Gael think-in
-
Business
Parties interested in Aer Arann
-
Sport
Powerful London Irish secure bonus point
-
GAA
-
Travel
-
Lifestyle
-
Music
-
Subscribe
-
Supplements
