Justice versus Conscience

She is such a strong, amazing woman! Her story fascinates me- I listened to every word she said. Those awful crimes committed against un married pregnant women were unforgivable!

When I was growing up, all we knew was that Michael (Anthony) was adopted. We were his West Coast cousins from California. We didn’t know all the particulars, or at least I didn’t. When we heard there was a book and a movie about his adoption, we of course went to see the movie. It was my aunt that adopted Mary and Michael. The movie was such a tear jerker, especially for me since he was my cousin. Didn’t really know anything about this. All we knew is that he was adopted and that he started to learn how to read when he was two. We were informed that he was a very bright boy. He became a lawyer. He turned out to be a very successful young man. It’s heartbreaking that the two of them, Michael and his mother, never got to be reunited. And it wasn’t for a lack of trying.

This almost happened to myself when I was 16 and pregnant award of the state. I ran and had my child under a different name and social security number and stayed in hiding until I turned 18 than I went to court to claim maternity on my Son. This story could have been an reality to me and was very emotional for me to watch. This is such a story of heartbreak and gut wrenching pain missing her Son. I so wished for a better ending of the story for her and her son, and she is def a inspiration to me especially when she forgave the Sister…I know I could have not.

The film left me in pieces, and it’s such a joy to see how witty and fun and clever the real person is, even as I adored her in the movie. Being from Ireland, the whole aspect of Catholic guilt and the constraints of Irish culture – especially back in the era of the 50s – it really resonated with me. It’s a colossal tragedy that so many families were split apart and kept from one another, and I agree with Philomena that it’s something that should be talked about more, if not to make those culpable accountable, then to reunite the mothers and children. It’s terribly sad that Michael/Anthony and Philomena never met again, but hopefully some other families will have happier endings. Maybe even thanks to Philomena and Martin’s efforts to bring this issue into the light.

I went to a convent school and I witnessed first hand how cruel the “Sisters” could be. I could never understand how they called themselves Brides Of Christ. There was an orphanage attached to the school and those children were treated so bad. I have just finished watching the movie Philomena and my heart is broken for what she went through. Her Son was taken from her twice. What little happiness they could have had together was cruely denied them by these so called Sisters

My dad was given up to foster homes in Ireland in 1942, he was severely abused, in 8 different orphanages in the first 7 years of his life. A child needs to be with the people who love them.

I am an adoptee who has recently been reunited with my mom after 47 years of adoption-separation. The horrors of adoption are quite real and though I was adopted right from birth my mother has told me about some of the pain that she also had to endure because of the horror’s she had to go through….I think that I need to see this movie but my mom has decided that it would be too painful for her! I am ELATED that I found my mother and she is AMAZED that I “came home” as I am the ONLY child that she ever allowed herself to have because of the Trauma involved in her decision…..Thank you Philomena and Jane for sharing your story! RIP Anthony!

Thank you so much for your true story. It means a lot to me cos i was also adopted out at birth as my biological mother was 16 years of age and un-married when i was born. I was born in Nelson, New Zealand in the year 1963. My mother was told she had to sign the adoption papers early in her pregnancy by her parents. There is much more to my story BUT this isn’t about me… this is about Philomea Lee who i respect greatly. Thanks again. <3

I haven’t cried in a long while over a movie, but this one had me bawling. As we get older we realize what sort of pain people went through for such a senseless and outdated principle. My biological children were born in Thailand, and at the time I had a difficult time trying to get their passports, and to get them out of the country. (You don’t realize how hard it is for an American parent to get on a plane with two Asian children until you see it first hand). At one point someone from the immigration department said I would need to go back to the US, then return for them once the paperwork was straightened out. I made quite a scene at the airport telling them that I was not leaving this country without my children. (There is a future book/movie in this that my children may one day be telling). So I could only imagine her helplessness and grief. God bless you Philomena.

What an extraordinary woman! I could never forgive the evil those nuns committed! Shes a better woman than most. God bless her x

What a lovely woman. It’s such a tragedy that her son died before she looked for him but at least she got some closure and to learn about his life. She can be happy that he had a good life.

She is saying that she was a nuisance by crying and being heartbroken for having her baby taken from her. She was not a nuisance. She was having a NORMAL reaction. I am heartbroken just hearing this story.

I’ve read the book and seen the film I find it heartbreaking. Wrong on so many levels and they had the audacity to remove her son then send her to look after other children. It never ceases to amaze me how human beings can hurt one another . What a wonderful lady xx

Just came across this… having watched the film, and now this, I would really love for Jane to write a book about the journey to make this happen. She seems strong – like her mum – and I am pretty sure that her investigation skills would help so many others. Essentially, I am saying ‘thank you Jane for loving and supporting your mum through this. It’s so touching to see how Philomena refers you with love and admiration’. I think Jane has her own story to tell regarding this journey, and one which would equally compelling

As a Roman Catholic women with Irish and Italian ancestry I am heartbroken for these ‘Magdalene’ women and their children. Is it little wonder that Irish women are now at last able to raise their voice and are so bravely demanding what every other women in Europe has been entitled to for years. I’m not advocating abortion on demand here, but for women to have open access to education and sexual health services. The women of Philomena’s era were treated and discarded by church, state and sometimes family in the most cruel way. My heart weeps for Anthony and his mother who were robbed of finding each other. Although the book and film differ slightly from the actual truth it has finally given Philomena her voice.

I saw the movie today and it was extremely powerful and moving. It is heart-wrenching. I am so grateful to Philomena for sharing her painful story which she kept private for so many years.

I just cannot believe this happened only 60 years ago….Thank you so much for sharing your story. I hope it will help some children and parents find each other

This went on until later than you would think. A friend of mine from Kerry became pregnant in the 90’s, and went to a convent rather than tell her family she was pregnant at 18. She told her family she was working in England, but she was really in a convent in Ireland. She would write letters about her supposed working life to her family, and the nuns would send her letters to a convent in England. The nuns in England would post her letters back to Ireland to make it seem like she was really living in England. (So they would have an English postmark on the envelope.) After a while my friend’s family became suspicious, and decided to visit her in England. At that point my heavily pregnant friend and the nuns made a plan to pretend she had been transferred to a job on the island of Jersey, making it much harder for her family to visit. From then on, all of her letters were sent from Ireland to Jersey, and back to her family in Ireland with a Jersey postmark. She had her baby in Ireland, and was given three weeks upon the leaving the convent to come back for the baby. As soon as she went back to Kerry from her ‘work’ in England, her family knew something was wrong. Within hours of her return to the family home, they were in a car on the way to Dublin to get the baby back. That baby is now in her 20’s and she is adored by her family and friends. Love to all of you who have gone through similar circumstances. XOXO

I so love hearing the TRUE story.  God Bless Philomena Lee.

This lady has such dignity and no apparant anger towards her experience. Someone to learn from. I’ve lived with nuns in boarding school (when I was 6 years old through age 10) and mother superior came through in a sitting with a medium. Here is what she said: “I feel on behalf of the four of us we owe you a great deal of apology. We didn’t know any better.” It helped tremendously and I understood the times very well.

Lovely woman. Her daughter is awesome, too. What a cruel thing she had to go thru. Spain is full of similar cases and they are only being discovered now and one nun went to trial.

Saw the movie just then and loved it. Seeing the real Philomena tell the real story is also very interesting and enlightening. I kinda knew about what happened with unwed mothers back in the day in Ireland from the Magdalene Sisters movie so hearing her tell that different orders were involved in similar things was quite unnerving. Anyway she seems like a wonderful person in real life judging from this interview. Good sense of humor as well.

The scene where Anthony is taken away in the car and is looking out of the back window … it couldn’t be more poignant if it were made up, such a wrenching scene … what heartbreaking years this young woman had in the convent.

This is a sad story, however, people fail to realize that times were different then. My mother would tell me about how shameful it was for a woman to have a baby out of wedlock. The majority of men, if they got a woman pregnant would marry them. She would tell me that when someone got married people would count on their fingers how many months until the couple’s first child was born. If it was less than 9 months people would snicker to each other. Society, not the Catholic church, felt this way. There was not a big welfare system like there is now, as a matter of fact, most families were barely scrapping by let alone a woman alone with a baby. In those days, there was no having babies out of wedlock and the taxpayers funding you…..you were on your own, and held accountable for your actions. As I said before, whether Protestant, Catholic, or atheist society had different unwritten rules then.

Good on this lady for abandoning the Catholic religion. What despicable people they were! I speak from experience as I was raised Catholic and also abandoned the faith decades ago. I feel such sorrow for ‘Philomena’ . My heart breaks for her and the millions of others in a similar situation. Personally, I could never forgive the nuns had it been me in this situation.

She looks fantastic. And such a humane perspective. A triumph of the human spirit. It’s really amazing how moral corruption develops, is entrenched, and then defended by the Church.

She is a great woman and I LOVED the movie! I do feel sorry for all that those girls went through. Those nuns should be at least ashamed of what they did.

Wow, she kind of reminds me of my mother, another old Irish lady the same age. My mother didn’t go through what she did, but she had a baby die who she wasn’t allowed to ever see or mourn properly. I don’t know that she has ever had true closure. He is buried in a mass grave w/other dead babies in NY where we grew up, although they do list all the names buried there, so it’s not like they totally disappeared.

What an amazing woman you are. I think your right your story will hopefully enable others to find their lost families.

Such strong, courageous women! Sad, but inspirational!

This movie will tear a hole through your soul, drain you of every tear you have left in your body, and set up residence in your mind. What genius. I’d like to meet everyone that made this film and thank them. Their use of dramatic action to convey what lesser talents would spend dozens of script pages of dialogue to explain was, I can’t put it into words, just, as perfect as you can get in an imperfect world. The legendary Robert McKeee could use it as a poster child for his teachings. Watch this movie. If your a laymen, you’ll love it, if you’re a writer, an artist of any kind, you’ll see the gift we all search for, the level of talent we all hope for. As a writer myself, someone who’s trying to put his own film together, I beg the universe to unite this posting and anyone involved in making this film in hopes that such mastery could be brought to my own project. Spencer Woodhouse https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1290487230/film-entitled-the-quest-for-perpetual-bliss/description

I cried so much watching this movie and wanted to find out about her son and his search to find his mother.

Two class ladies… calm and logical. Well done plus a great +++ movie

Her story is just simple amazing.. the movie its even better.. I love all from this.. thanks for sharing this Philomena … much love

I love her strength. I also went through something similar, not quite as tragic. The emotions are the same none the less.

so many that are adopted do not know that so often the mother had no control over if she kept the child. So many mothers look for their children. This was not just in Ireland and not just in the years that her son was born.

Appalled at this interviewer who thought her having other children would cancel the pain of losing her firstborn. A mother never forgets a child no matter how many she had.

first shown in 2013, how I missed it I don’t know it’s one of the very few best films that the BBC have shown in a long time, The outcome of the film was totally different to what I expected, you know the scenario mother searches for long los son, mother is reunited with lost son, how wrong could I be, Superb acting from both Judy Dench and Steve Coogan, Steve along wit a Jeff Pope wrote the screen play Coogan also produced it, Credit should be given to the investigating reporter Martin Sixsmith who wrote the book in 2009, I also noticed the young chappy in the pub bar the thin featured one was out of Ballykiss Angel. On the whole this screen play was the best that I had seen on any tv channel, the film it’s been said has been put forward for a factual award and quite rightly. Question; is there any on going investigation into the Nun’s activities at the time, because if there isn’t there should be, The attitude of both the Catholic Church and the Nun’s can be smelt around the world, The arrogance of these people is unbelievable, They were nothing less than children traffickers and slave labour louts.

The movie is completely different from the book (I’ll leave it at that as I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone), but both are fantastic.

Yesterday i saw the movie, at the end of the movie i realized that it is a true story.i could not believe this, i did not want to to believe this awful story had really happened. i read the whole night about this, and saw the video of the irish parliament when the apologize was spoken. it is unbelievable how the katholic church handles this, they dont even want to pay for the victims. ireland, a beutiful country with a bloody shamed terrible church until today. God bless you, Philomena. And i mean God bless you, not church bless you. The church is not god, and the katholic church with this story is coser to hell than to heaven.

I’ll have to assume 38 nuns gave this video the thumbs down….??? Who does that? This dear woman is quite brave coming forward to expose the crimes of the Catholic church.

I think the film was great, but the real story is just as interesting. One could almost accuse Coogan [who I like as a performer a lot] of artistic ego in making his character the person to do so much of the work that actually Philomena’s daughter did.  However, I do think the dynamic contract between his atheist view and her faithful one is a strong component to the film story.

I watched the movie. God bless you Philomena. Your story is so poignant.

I found the movie a little too flippant in some ways. In fact, I thought they portrayed Philomena as a bit ditzy when she was worldly in many ways through her difficult work. She has done a great service by going public although I think the movie did not expose the horror of the mother and baby homes. I know Philomena speaks kindly as she doesn’t want to be ostracized. This movie could have done more show dimensions of an organized system to have mothers raise their babies to age two, always knowing they would be taken away. They had no control. This would affect them for the rest of their lives, not to mention the lives of their children. The nuns worked actively to keep mothers and children apart forever — diabolical.

I saw the movie 2 years ago before I saw this documentary. What a beautiful story . I have a client that went through this time in Ireland Thank goodness for her she was adopted..

Brilliant lady, my own mother was there around same time, took me over 35 years and had to deal with Sr Santo as well, bad nun. When I eventually found out who my mother was , sadly she had died.

What a remarkably brave woman.

My grandmother Norah Mary Tracy was in that home where my mother was born in 1945 and put into foster care to a wonderful family.

So good to see her happy!

In my family we had a couple of girls who fell pregnant put of wedlock, BUT these young girls were not sent away, or referred to as an embarrassment to the family, the family rallied around and the young girls and their babies were looked after. The Catholic Church, Priests and the Nuns have a lot to answer for not only for the way these young mothers were treated but also for all the young children that were physically and sexually abused by the nuns and priests, and those who were shipped off to all corners or the world without family consent, also the young children who were abused by the priests and the Vatican knew all about the abuse and did nothing except to send pedophile to another county, city, village. I detest the Catholic Church, priests etc and all they stand for.

Thought the film was very moving but I have to say it’s a little shocking hearing what dramatic licence the film makers took. So a sister told her about her son’s death not as portrayed in the film, does make you suspicious of the film makers motives, especially as Philomena’s daughter in the above interview points out the reality was also different from the book. Still, Judi Dench and Steve Coogan are both excellent in the movie.

I have just watched this film, Thank you Philomina for sharing your story,Anthony will be watching over you now and always lovely lady…

What a wonderful, but sad story. Bless you Philomena

yes, she is such a courageous woman!

Great if also very sad story Congratulations Philomena & Jane for a wonderful story I had just watched a presentation by Richard Bennett extolling the virtues of Ireland I too grew up in that Ireland and don’t agree with him , there was so much similar cases swept under the carpet it was despicable . Interesting story About Sean Ross abbey . I grew up nearby In the Sixties as I went to the local market town in the car with my Dad and uncle in those days , no sound system in car ,the old boys chatted about the crops cattle houses as they drove by, of course they knew all the farms on the way ,of course as I got older i noticed that as they passed Sean Ross they went on silent mode .One day I asked who lives in that big property silence , some years later one of my mates older brothers suggested to that if we went there it would be easy to pick up a girl that would have sex with us ,as all the girls in there was easy and of low morals Sad to say that was the Ireland of the sixties I saw the movie in the south isl of NZ and shed a tear

I am so sorry that this happened to you and hundreds of others, you are a strong woman and definitely no sinner more sinned against bless you

I WISH he would have touched more on the religion aspect! It was so powerful for me in the movie that she maintained her faith above all this, and I want to hear more about that now after seeing it wasn’t true like that.

I just love her character n personality. V cheerful n bubbly despite her ups n downs in life.

The daughter is beautiful in every way .x how clever to follow that process x

<3 this woman is so strong<3 its a sad story, but im happy that, this story becom a movie ,so other can learn. The realety can suck some times.

I love this woman and she is so strong.

I went through a similar thing I wasn’t the only one as I think there were 50 of us in the home in the same boat.

This was such a good movie!

What a brave strong beautiful woman!

I think steve coogan has Irish connections so I’d imagine that was part of his motivation 🇮🇪

What a Lovely Lady,such a tragedy what happened to her.

Formidable woman…the only actress that COULD play her is Dame Judi Dench.

Bless you Philomena. I’m sad they done this to you.

Does anyone know what became of Michael’s (Anthony’s) adoptive sister, i.e., the little girl who was adopted with him the day he was taken from his birth mother Jane? Is she still living and has she (or any other surviving family members) made a statement or shared her experience or her reaction to the book or film?

I’m a Philomena baby, and one good thing that’s come from it was that I got to tell Imelda May about it and it got me a hug from her

Great interview. I wonder if Mary ever found her birth mother.

I. Saw the movie liked it very much. Love this video what a wonderful and down to earth the real Philomena is loved listening to the real story.

What a wonderful film.

I would like to lobby the Vatican to consider that Philomena is a living saint. God bless you Philomena you have all the attributes Jesus entreated everyone to aspire to.

i lived thru those times – remember it wasn’t just the catholics who were harsh on unwed mothers – sure they had the convents with which to perform these atrocities – but other churches simply prevailed on their congregation to do the ugly deeds

Thank you Philomena for speaking out. Peace be with you and rest assured that the Catholic church will be judged by the true God of the bible. Jesus would have made you feel saved and forgiven after asking for forgiveness, based on his Biblical teachings. Perhaps it would be good if the nuns read the Bible so they would know how and what it really means to be a christian. God bless you Philomena, you are a lovely lady and a wonderful mother. Your daughter is beautiful as well. Amen

What a lreally ovely woman …..with real strength of character . Its terrible ,….. cried listening to this . Terrible …….  I remember this sort of thing happening in Australia . People were disowned by their families if they got pregnant …there was no use of the pill at this time and they were sent to homes where they had the baby and thern told that its best that the baby is adopted out . They signed documents to that effect , So awful …….even as a child when i knew of this i wondered how people could be so unfeeling . Most nuns were good people but misguided by a church with archaic ideas ……so tragic ……..

What an absolutely beautiful incredible lady and such a tragic story x

This is outstanding!

There is also another book about similar place in Ireland “the light in the window”

Just happened across this. Lovely women both and brave.

It’s hard to be leave how different it was then I was their and sad to think how your baby was the awful price you had to pay for not been told the facts of life. We were all so brain washed. I was told to wash my body wit my eyes closed as a young girl I washed so fast as we were told it was a sin to look at your body it’s all so Sad

What a sweetheart!!!

My Heart is bleeding right now. This is SO sad. I am so angry. I can‘t believe this is true. It’s so sad to see how much people are heartless..

what a story. what a woman.

I’m so very sorry Philomena , such a heartbreaking story , you are a very strong Lady, wicked nuns indeed ….God Bless you always 🇨🇦

Heartbreaking true story a courageous woman ! Why would anyone hit thumbs down ? Perhaps those who were apart of such atrocities ??

I got my revenge to the nuns in 2nd grade by getting pinworms and spreading it to the entire class. They never allowed us to go to the loo or drink water. No soap in bathrooms either. Even my mother said those nuns were cruel.

Lovely interview!  x

What courage.

This breaks my heart.

Totally evil the church should pay for this ,after all they made a lot of money from selling these poor children.

What a sweetheart! !

I’m curious to know whether Mary ever made contact with her mother?

bout to see the movie today 🙂 looks really good

That has since changed with the freedom of information act in 2001. Adoptees can access their records now.

How do they sleep at night ,do they even ever look at the mirror?.what the Catholic church continues to do is outright evil.

Her daughter Jane is very supportive

I want back to the Catholic school I attended for the 2nd and 3rd grades. My memories are of being scared and cold. Even my mother wondered why they sent those nuns to teach children – as they were so cruel and provided us nothing in the way of group activities, art or music. We sat at individual desks all day not allowed to wee or play. Anyway, the school was closed with absolutely no information at all. They went into hiding for good reason! Those nuns were terrible terrible women, without exception. Edited to add that the two parish priests were later “sent away” as well. (I think I got my revenge as I got pinworms one year and spread it to the entire class, hopefully to the nuns as well lol!)

great movie so sad Judi dench brilliant

Lovely family. How cruelly treated by the church.medical profession an public servants. No excuse for the cruel behaviour by any of them. The cruelty towards fellow human being. No excuse. There was never an excuse.

Just watched the movie it was very sad its terrible what was happening all over kids taken mom’s had no say look into the Bonsecurs sisters in tuam Co galway mass graves

A very touching story..

Appreciate Sharing Many Blessings

Terminou agora o fillme Philomena, exibido pela rede globo na ” sessão da tarde “

I wonder if one day a movie maker will make a movie about the artificial reproduction industry and how they conspire to deliberately create children that can never have a normal parent-child relationship with at least one of their biological parents. It would also be interesting to know what Philomena’s adopted son Anthony (being that he was gay) thought about Gay and Feminist activists who claim it is their right to use donor sperm/ova to produce children for themselves?

In Argentina hundreds of women were tortured and their sons were kidnapped,this happened to us too,unfortunately

Lovely lady, what she went through, just awful xx

How anyone could be a catholic is beyond me.

what an atrocity by the Catholic church and how sad she never again got to hold her Anthony. So glad society has a different view on pregnancy  Church still is archaic so thats sad

Philomean LOVE FOR YOU GOD BLESS YOU AND TO ALL THOSE WOWEN…LOVE FROM MEXICO.

“Out of wedlock” why does no one say, “pregnant – by WHOM??? Why is the ultimate perpetrator always left out of this discussion?!?

Laws in Ireland and all over the world so that you cannot  find the child you put up for adoption (closed adoption) were common in the ’60’s and put in place to protect the child and the adoptive parents from meddling. Today, the mother who has the baby, is pretty much in charge.

To fully understand Philomena’s story, one has to examine, in great, detail the “culture” of the time. Through a 21st century prism it all looks barbaric, uncaring and “unchristian”. During these years a young unmarried woman with a crisis pregnancy pregnancy, pragmatically, faced big, big problems. A large majority of the families of a pregnant girl (for deep seated reasons) didn’t want to know. Through the attitudes and prism of the 1930’s/ ’40’s / ’50’s/’60’s in all honesty an out of wedlock baby was unaccepted anywhere in Ireland. So who were the different parties touched (in different ways) by such a surprise event? 1. The pregnant girl. 2. The man that impregnated her. 3. The mother and father of the woman. 4. The mother and father of the man. So, when the woman looked in the mirror what real options did she see? This was in the 1930’s/’40’s/’50’s/’60’s. The crunch questions are: what does she do? Where does she go? In a new, young Irish state what public health supports were in existence? My opinion is that a young government seeing acute social problems like this went to the churches Catholic & Protestant (known to have over the years given voluntary health & educational services to the the state) pleading for help. So, from the beginning on such challenging matters Team Ireland were 20 points down on the scoreboard, before the referee blew the whistle to start the game. The honest thing for all of us who read the “Philomena” book or saw the film is to say to oneself – WHAT WOULD I HAVE DONE? * Socially? * Economically? * Politically? * Personally? * Familywise? An honest answer to that question uncovers the truth.

Fantastic!!!!

May God gives you peace

what a lovely lady x

Thanks for post. Two questions: 1. Why did Hollywood have to change the much of the facts about the story? The disclaimer should say “it is based on a true story but much of the film is fiction.” 2. Why were the Catholic nuns portrayed in such an evil way? Even Philomena speaks of them in high regard. They clothed her, fed her, taught her, cared for her son, found a home for him, found a job for her in England, and then found out her son was deceased and provided her this information. Based on the Weinstein brothers previous works, this is all anti-Catholic bigotry.

Was a GR8 Movie (y)

I think withholding medical care, enslaving the girls is totally disgusting.  However, back then in Ireland a single mother without any support, education or housing could not of possibly looked after their baby.  Many were teens.  Many families disowned them.  However, if you choose the behavior you suffer the consequences.  Sad but true.  Even sadder is that many of these nuns were bitter and twisted and rarely showed any love for Christ or fellow man, and even rarer showed Christlike behavior.

I can not understand why the journalist is laughing all the time … it’s not a Hollywood fiction, it’s a dramatic real story , I find it untactful !!

She should have the baby in Ireland now. There are more babies born out of wedlock than to married couples. Amazingly, NO ONE in my high school of several hundred girls got pregnant. It was a small town and it would have been very difficult to cover it up….no one I knew every “visited an aunt in another county” for several months. Of course, this was in the late ’50’s and early ’60’s when nuns, priests and parents were in charge, and I and the other young women I grew up with wouldn’t even consider having sex outside of marriage. We had a very healthy respect for the adults both at home and at school, and wouldn’t dream of defying them. Our parents didn’t sue the school when the rules were enforced. There was a strict dress code and there was rarely a disciplinary problem, as none of us wanted to bring a note home summoning our parents to come to the school. How things have changed back there. The young people drink, smoke and have sex and produce babies without ever considering the consequences of raising a child without a father. Fathers are just as out of fashion as they are here.

Philamena Lee is beautiful like her son ,Anthony x

The Nun, Shame on any Mother who were ashamed of of their daughter & packed her off to human traffickers or Nuns.These Woman knew that the babies would be taken away but the young girls didn’t.There are or were, Father’s who never saw their child but the Girls pain is endless no doubt.

Why is this interviewer laughing so much.  What a put-off.  I couldn’t listen to the whole thing..

Fantastic shows the Catholic Church shamed

The interviewer was a bit too disrespectful in my opinion.

Similar situation with my husband mum she sent to Cork

He should be asking her questions referred from the book written about her experiences, not the film. The film is a hollywood version made to appeal the eye. What kind of journalist is this?

The interviewer is an insensitive eejit. She starts to talk about how she started to ‘make a career’ for herself and he butts in with ‘HOW LONG UNTIL YOU MET YOUR HUSBAND?’. Seriously? We’re talking about ingrained misogyny, Women being incarcerated for the ”sin” of being Women and this guy does that? And he hasn’t an ounce of research done on her either.

How i can find Miss Philomenia could someone tell me ?!

Where can I find this movie

Lovely interview, but very incompetent interviewer.

I understand this is sad! But the babies wer not sold Donations wer given & went back into the mother & baby homes & the poor! Two things 1. You had no work no home no one to support you & ur child! So no way of keeping UR baby! 2. You must have signed the papers ! Thrs no shame The shame is with the irish fathers who run off! If the church had not of helped you would be visiting a grave maybe even one for both off you Because IRELAND was very poor & was very tough on women & babies ,no medical assistant very little finance help that why the church became the backbone off the people!

the catholic church has so much to answer to

S0 much judgement on someone who did a natural act that should be celebrated if the person consented it religion organised does me head in

The interviewer could be a less rude

The interviewer is incredibly insensitive and disrespectful during the entire conversation, not the first time he has conducted himself in that way when speaking to his guests. Disappointing.

should i watch this movie man

The woman bears the shame, and the suffering. Where is the male?

sad story

She has been through hell. Those stupid nuns ruined her life forever.

grateful for her distinction that she was NOT in a Magdalene Laundry … my ancestor was and the stories of the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, Canada AND the U.S. are HORRIFIC – nuns and priests sexually abusing the “Maggies”, beating them, shaving their heads, HORRIFIC HORRIFIC HORRIFIC …. not meaning to take anything away from the tragedy of this woman’s life and her son’s … there just needs to be a movie made that gets this much attention about the Magdalene Laundries – 800+ children and teenage women died and buried with no marker… on and on…

omg!

the church is just horrible!

Em, Philomena vhat ees dees? Vhat ees dees Philomena?

ge

I suppose Philomena’s son, Anthony, was lucky that abortion wasn’t considered an acceptable solution to an unplanned pregnancy in 1950s Ireland.