COMEDIAN Dara Ó Briain has opened up about meeting his birth mother for the first time, describing how she had "no choice" in putting him up for adoption.
The Co Wicklow-born stand-up and broadcaster discussed the search for his birth mother during the recent online Irish Times Winter Nights festival.
The 48-year-old Mock the Week presenter learned he was adopted at a young age, and said he had a happy childhood at his adopted family home in Bray.
However, after watching the 2013 Judi Dench-starring movie Philomena, about a woman's search for the son she was forced to give up for adoption, he said he was inspired to begin his own hunt for his birth mother.
"Being adopted is a state of knowing you're adopted, then it not being mentioned for ages. And then at a point in later life going, 'Hang on, am I adopted?'" Dara told online festival viewers.
"I remember my father coming to London for lunch, and we had one of those conversations where you just clear the decks on everything. I told him, 'I seem to remember knowing this', and he said, 'Yeah, but it's not a secret. I quit telling you because, you know, why would you keep saying it?'"
Having tracked down his birth mother and asking her if she had wanted to have him adopted, she told him "There was no choice in this", the comedian explained.
"The whole thing was built on shame and expediency and a feeling of, just get this done," he added.
The comedian said he has now met some of his biological siblings, but has yet to meet the full family due to coronavirus restrictions.
However, he described the search for answers on his roots as "unnecessarily hard" due to Irish adoption law putting a mother's right to privacy above that of the adopted child seeking to discover their birth mother's identity.
