US WOMAN - 3 RD CHILD OF FATHER MICHAEL CLEARY
STORY / PICS FROM - IRISH INDEPENDENT
By: Paul Williams and Geraldine Gittens
Felicia Irwin - victim? |
Felicia Irwin, an American-born woman who was adopted almost
30 years ago believes that she is the biological daughter of singing priest
Father Michael Cleary.
An American-born woman who was adopted almost 30 years ago
believes that she is the biological daughter of singing priest Father Michael
Cleary.
Felicia Irwin was given up for adoption as a baby by her
birth mother Phyllis Hamilton, who was the secret lover of Ireland's most
outspoken cleric and the mother of his two sons.
Ms Irwin - a mother-of-three who lives in Florida - plans to
undertake parental tests to determine if she is the third child of Fr Cleary,
who died in 1993 aged 60.
Ms Irwin (29) told the Irish Independent: "I was born
in Florida. My mother came here when she was pregnant. She left almost
immediately after I was born."
She added: "I look just like my mother and I know that
I have his (Cleary's) traits... I know that she loved that man and she had me
with him."
Phyllis Hamilton gave birth to Felicia in Fort Lauderdale in
January 1985 when she went to stay with close friends who later adopted the
baby girl.
Phyillis Hamilton with daughter Felicia (Felicia’s eyes were
blacked out by the Sunday World newspaper to protect her identity)
By that time 35-year-old Phyllis had been the secret lover
of charismatic celebrity priest Fr Cleary since 1967.
Concealed
The clandestine 17-year relationship - concealed by the fact
that she was his housekeeper - had already produced two sons. The first son,
Douglas Boyd Barrett, was adopted while the second, Ross, was reared by Phyllis
and Fr Michael Cleary.
However, Ms Hamilton claimed in her 1995 biography that she
fell pregnant with her daughter after being raped by a trainee priest.
But up to the time of her death in 2001 Phyllis confided
that she was still unsure as to whether Felicia's father was Michael Cleary or
the deacon who was later thrown out of the Church. The alleged rapist died 15
years ago.
"I don't want to be a child of rape," said Felicia
in an interview at her Florida home. "I'm scared of what the outcome may
be. I was always told I would be shunned [by the Catholic Church]. I've heard
nothing but good things about Fr Cleary, but I never met him as my
father," she added.
"I know who he (Cleary) was. He inspired a lot of
people and I look up to that. I know who he was in the Church and in the
community, and I know that people always looked up to him."
Felicia said she made up her mind to finally establish the
identity of her biological father when the scandal was resurrected by a close
friend of Father Cleary, who denied that the cleric ever had any children with
Ms Hamilton.
In his June newsletter for St Brigid's parish in Cabinteely,
Co Dublin, Fr Arthur O'Neill described the original revelations as
"exasperating, unproven and the result of shoddy practice" by named
journalists.
Fr O'Neill claimed that his former clerical colleague had
suffered a serious injustice: "The burial of a person's legacy deeper than
their body just isn't fair - if it's based on a falsehood."
However, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin
quickly dissociated himself and the Church from Fr O'Neill's outspoken
comments.
In 1999 DNA tests confirmed that Ross Hamilton was the son
of Michael Cleary. Felicia now hopes that she can also undertake a similar test
with the help of Ross Cleary.
Felicia's adoptive parents, who were both born in Ireland,
brought her to visit Phyllis and Michael Cleary in Dublin when she was around
five or six.
Phyllis Hamilton cherished the pictures which were taken
during that visit with Felicia, Ross and Father Cleary.
Five years ago Ross Hamilton visited Felicia in Florida as a
surprise, and he presented her with a pair of Claddagh earrings which had
belonged to her mother.
"The first thing Ross said when he walked in the door
was 'You look just like her'. He gave me a pair of earrings - gold Claddagh -
that she (Phyllis) bought for me," Felicia said.
She added: "I don't have much, but I have a picture of
my mother, myself and my adoptive father."
"My [adoptive] mother told me she (Phyllis) had passed.
I knew that was my last way to tell my story gone."
"I never heard anything and then, all of a sudden, I
received a cheque in the mail. I inherited $15,500. I was told that she had it
hidden for me. I inherited it when my daughter was four months old.
"It shocked me, but obviously I was on her mind. And I
believe that she wanted me to be in her life."