Viewers of The Tommy Tiernan Show were blown away by two guests incredible story on Saturday night.
Fans were shocked when this week’s guests revealed a shocking twist about their family history later in life.
Nessa Hurley and Anne O’Connell, who were born in the same mother and baby home in the 1980s and later adopted into Irish families, appeared on the chat show last night.
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The pair were friends three years ago, when one was living in Cork and the other was based in Limerick.
They had never told each other that they had been adopted from Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork, or that they had both taken steps to make contact with their birth families.
However, in October 2022, Nessa received a call from the adoption authorities informing her that they had located her birth sister, and it turned out to be her friend Anne.
‘We think of these places as being from the 1950s and 60s’
Anne O’Connell talks about how her birth mother went into a Mother and Baby home back in the 1980s #TommyTiernanShow@tommedian pic.twitter.com/JQFIqojNlZ
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) February 24, 2024
Anne told Tommy: “My mum concealed the pregnancy til she was about seven months and when she couldn’t hide it anymore, then she went about looking to go to the home [herself].”
“Bessborough was open until 1999. I was doing my Leaving Cert that year. It’s not long ago, it’s such recent past.”
Nessa recalled how she began the process of tracing her birth family.
“I contacted the adoption services. I never wanted to go about meeting my birth parents. What I really wanted to do is literally let her know that I was okay,” she said.
Our first guests tonight on the #TommyTiernanShow are Nessa Hurley and Anne O’Connell who share their adoption stories@Tommedian pic.twitter.com/KIM2MdQQEA
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) February 24, 2024
“You just knew from reading the report that these women had to have felt guilt and felt a bit of shame. I wanted her to know that I was absolutely fine, I had grown up in a great family. And, you know, if she was feeling any guilt, to let it go. I was perfectly happy.”
“I was told when I contacted them that it would take at least three to four years for anything to be done, for a trace to even be started, and this was only in 2021, so it was recent. And to go away and they’d be in touch.”
“But they said in the meantime that I could go onto this thing called the contact preference register, which was basically, you put your name down if you would like anyone that could potentially contact you from the birth family to contact you.”
The Tommy Tiernan Show
Season 8 | Episode 8ℹ️ Nessa Hurley and Anne O’Connell, Dan Tani, Paul Lynch, MC Fred Cooke with music from The Last Dinner Party
📺 Stream the episode now on @RTEplayer via https://t.co/vNTsmdOGP7 #TommyTiernanShow pic.twitter.com/D8QYibO47a
— Tommy Tiernan (@Tommedian) February 25, 2024
“So, I said ‘Yeah, put me down.’ That was in January or 2021 and it wasn’t until October of 2022 that I got a call to say, we have matched you with someone,” added Nessa.
Viewers have since taken to X to share their awe in the incredible story.
One viewer wrote: “This made me go whhhaaaat!!! Such an extraordinary story. Sometimes a happy ending comes from a tragic beginning.”
Many were moved by Tommy’s incredible guests.
The guests on the #TommyTiernanShow tonight have been top notch.
The two ladies speaking of their experience finding each other as sisters after being born in Bessborough was a wonderful thing to come from such hardship. How they spoke of their biological mother was beautiful.
— Denise Harding (@DeniseHRocks) February 24, 2024
My heart always hurts thinking about women who went through the experience of losing their babies. There is such loving compassion here from Nessa and Anne. So powerful. #TommyTiernanShow
— Wayne Jacob (@Wayne_Jacob_) February 24, 2024
