Anne Biggs has used her real-life story, of being banished to the U.S. by the Irish Church, as the basis of her novel, "The Swan Garden".
Anne Biggs’ mother was only fourteen when she was raped, sent to a home and forced to sign documents for her daughter’s release. Biggs, who was born in County Westmeath in 1949, was sent to St Patrick’s Home in Dublin, which secretly exported 254 Irish children to the U.S. for adoption from the 1940s to the 70s. Biggs was adopted and sent to America at the age of four.
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/anne-biggs-was-banished-by-catholic-church-to-us-at-the-age-of-four#.WRN0UYUZVb8.facebook
Anne Biggs’ mother was only fourteen when she was raped, sent to a home and forced to sign documents for her daughter’s release. Biggs, who was born in County Westmeath in 1949, was sent to St Patrick’s Home in Dublin, which secretly exported 254 Irish children to the U.S. for adoption from the 1940s to the 70s. Biggs was adopted and sent to America at the age of four.
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/anne-biggs-was-banished-by-catholic-church-to-us-at-the-age-of-four#.WRN0UYUZVb8.facebook