After a lifetime of searching, 82-year-old, Eileen Macken, raised in a Dublin orphanage, was finally reunited with her 104-year-old mother.
She recently found out that her mother was alive, living in Scotland.
Last year she publicized her search on the RTE Liveline show, Ireland’s most popular radio chat broadcast.
She appealed to the listeners to help her find her mother even though she had little hope that her mother would still be living at that time.
One of the listeners, a genealogist, helped Eileen track her mother down in Scotland. She was absolutely ecstatic to have found her.
Last month on April 11th, she and her husband George, along with her daughter and son-in-law took a trip to Scotland to meet Macken’s mother for the first time.
At first her family was apprehensive about Eileen taking the trip at her age, but Macken convinced them otherwise.
“I heard she was alive at 103 and nothing would stop me trying to go and see her,” she said. With address in hand, they were off to Scotland.
They were greeted at the door by a gentleman. Eileen explained she and her family were from Ireland and that she had come to see her mother.
She found her mother inside, reading the newspaper. When she told her mother she was from Ireland, her mother took her hand and never let go.
It seems she knew instinctively and immediately what that meant. Needless to say, the reunion was an emotional one for both mother and daughter.
They bonded immediately, and their visit lasted 3 days.
On May 9th she went back on Joe Duffy’s ‘Liveline’ and told about her visit and exchange with Mom.
Macken says she also found out she has two half-brothers.
