Fathers Should Figure

The issue of Fathers’ Rights is one of those that bubbles away, every so often percolating into our consciousness only to drain straight through and return to the backburner. This is a travesty, an injustice happening in front of our eyes, which, worse than going unnoticed, is noticed but ignored.

As a father your rights of guardianship over your children are very vulnerable. Nowhere in the constitution are the rights of the father guaranteed. This leaves a father who is either unmarried, separated or widowed in a situation where his children can be taken away from him very easily by the relevant authorities.

The following is a synopsis of an event reported in an article by John Waters in the Irish Times of 16th January. He uses the name ‘K’ to preserve the anonymity of the people involved:
Due to his wife suffering from illness and spending months in hospital K was looking after their children, on requesting financial help from the HSE attention was drawn to his situation and social workers began making regular calls. His wife returned home and the calls continued. Growing more frequent, they culminated in 5 social workers arriving at his door. Having convinced his wife (who was in an increasingly deteriorating mental condition) that the children should be “taken away for a few days” they physically restrained him as they removed the children. A barring order was then obtained against K on the basis that he was excessively in "control" of his wife by virtue of her dependence on him. With him barred there was no one in a fit condition to look after the children and they were taken into care. In the last year K has had a total of 50 hours contact with his children, 2 days and 2 hours out of 365 days, roughly 0.005% of the year.

The HSE have used the issue of K being in increasing control of his wife, due to her illness, as the reason to justify taking away his children, this man, who was doing quite a good job of looking after his children, has basically had his children stolen by the state. A barring order does need any written pleadings to be submitted in order to be granted, a care order however does, but in this case the HSE avoided the need for a care order by manipulating the situation to a point where there was no one to look after the children and they therefore had to be taken into care.

Mr. Eamonn Quinn, secretary of Unmarried and Separated Fathers of Ireland, points out that “Our system of family law operates behind closed doors and there are problems with a system where judges can override fathers’ rights without accountability.”
The situation is represented adequately in the FAQ section of a website on Irish Family Law.

Question:
What are my legal rights in respect of my child?
Answer:None. Unmarried fathers do not have any automatic legal rights in respect of their children.
Question:
What are my legal rights in respect of my child if my name is on the Birth Certificate?Answer:
None.
Question:
Can my child be adopted without my consent?
Answer:If the mother and her husband (or any other applicants) apply to adopt your child the law requires that, if possible, you are consulted before any adoption order is made in respect of your child, even if you are not a joint guardian of your child.

Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights upholds a fathers right to their family and to know, love and care for their children. The absence of a similar proviso in the Irish constitution is glaring.

The Joint Committee on the Constitution, which formally launched its report on a review of the Constitution on 24th January, recommends some legislation to improve the plight of the Irish father.

Although this represents some small progress it does not go far enough. It does not recommend that any rights of the father in respect to his children be enshrined in the constitution. By leaving the basic right of the father out of this country’s constitution the people of Ireland are allowing the continuation of massive acts of injustice and denial of human rights.

The children that were abused in various institutions, religious and secular, in Ireland many years ago are now asking questions of the silence that surrounded their ill-treatment. The children that are now being denied access to their fathers and who have been wrongfully taken into state care are going be the ones who will be asking very awkward questions in ten or twenty years time.

As a generation, as a society, what are we going to say to them? That no one really cared enough to do anything, that some people tried but no one listened? If we don’t act now to change this situaion then there will be no answer to give that won’t leave our heads hanging in shame.