A brother and sister who were both abandoned as babies by their mother – and left in identical red tartan bags – have revealed their joy at finding each other more than 50 years later.
Reunited siblings David McBride, who lives in Birmingham, and Helen Ward, from Dublin, appear in a two-part special of ITV’s Long Lost Family, Born Without Trace, starting tonight.
Their extraordinary story, of both being born foundlings to a Protestant father and a Catholic mother in 1960s Northern Ireland – at a time of deep sectarian conflict – is being hailed as one of the reunion show’s best ever stories.
Appearing on This Morning today from their respective homes, the pair recounted their remarkable individual stories – and their ‘amazing’ discovery of both each other, and a further 14 half-siblings since Long Lost Family researchers matched their DNA last year.
They also explained how their birth parents had had a 40-year long affair but that religion had kept them forever apart. While their father was a married protestant with 14 children in Dublin, their mother, 17 years his junior, was a Catholic living in Northern Ireland.
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David McBride, who lives in Birimingham, and sister Helen Ward, from Dublin, found each other after more than 50 years after the show Long Lost Family matched them via a DNA test – the siblings had both been abandoned as babies in Northern Ireland in the 1960s
The story of David’s discovery on a freezing cold January evening in 1962 – he was left in the front seat of a car in a shopping bag – made the newspapers at the time
Joy: Helen describes meeting her brother as ‘amazing’ and said the journey the pair have been on, discovering 14 more half-siblings on their father’s side had been ‘wonderful’
Speaking to the show’s hosts, Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, David explained how he first found out about his extraordinary past when he tried to get a birth certificate at the age of 15 to join the army.
He said: ‘I didn’t know much until I was about eight years old when I went to a family court and I found out I was going there to be adopted.
‘The information about me being a foundling though, I didn’t really know much until I was about 15 years of age. I went to get a birth certificate for joining the army and I couldn’t get hold of one and when I got hold of one, it said ‘on or about the 6th January 1962.’
He reveals his father explained the vague date of birth was because he was a foundling and David was told that he had been discovered on the 16th January that year in the front seat of a car in Dunmurray, on the outskirts of Belfast, in a red tartan shopping bag on a freezing cold night.
He said: ‘The lady who owned the car found me in the front seat. She took me into the house and put me on the table. She ran across the road to get a neighbour and then called the police. They took me to the hospital in Belfast.’
The distinctive red tartan bags that both David and Helen were left in by their mother; the pair say they appreciate how hard it must have been for her to keep babies born to a Catholic man in a time of deep sectarian conflict
Speaking on This Morning today, Helen Ward explained how her adoptive father had told her to ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ when she became curious about her roots
The siblings, pictured with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, on This Morning today revealed how they were finally reunited as brother and sister after David got in touch with a researcher on Long Lost Family – who asked him to take a DNA test
David explained that his parents had had an illicit affair for almost 40 years – unable to be together because they were born into different religions
David’s sister Helen has a remarkably similar backstory – being found abandoned, this time on the other side of the Irish border in a telephone box in Dundalk, in a tartan bag on 11th March 1968.
She explains that while she always knew she was adopted, her curiosity about another possible family grew as she got older.
She told Holly and Phil: ‘My parents were very open from an early age. They told me with plenty of love and care that I was adopted.’
While her father told her to ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ when she expressed at the age of 18 that she wanted to know more, she says she couldn’t rest, and by 2003 she was determined to find out her true origins.
We started one journey and now we are on another, getting to know each other and our family…
Finally, in 2003 and with three children of her own, Helen found the courage to visit an adoption centre in Drogheda in southern Ireland. But sadly her birth certificate had only the simple words ‘child found exposed’.
Then last year she took a DNA test and posted it on an online database in a last-ditch attempt to find a blood relative.
Within months, producers on Long Lost Family uploaded David’s DNA onto the same system and found he had a match for a full sister.
‘Finding Helen was one of the greatest gifts,’ says David. ‘When we sat down and started talking, the world around us didn’t exist.’
David as a young boy (left). David learned a little about his background when he was 15 and applied to join the military, only to discover his birth certificate stated he was born ‘on or about 6 Jan’
After pursuing other genetic matches, researcher Ariel Bruce, a social worker on Long Lost Family, traced their parents after David got in touch saying he was keen to track down his birth family.
They learned their father was a shop manager from Dublin who died in 1993, while their mother had passed away in 2017.
Behind those stark facts lies a heartbreaking story. Their father was a married protestant with 14 children, but he had an affair with their mother, 17 years his junior and a Catholic.
That would have been scandalous in a time of huge sectarian conflict, so their mother gave her babies up.
The siblings have visited their late mother’s grave and expressed regret that she didn’t have any more children
Poignantly, she never married or had more children, and learning this left her children feeling huge compassion for her.
They’ve been to her grave, and spoken on the phone to three of their 14 half-siblings.
‘We started one journey,’ says David, ‘and now we are on another, getting to know each other and our family.’
Helen told Holly and Phil that it was ‘so fantastic that I met David first’ saying they now had the support of each other to meet their new family.
Long Lost Family Special: Born Without Trace is on 1 -2 June at 9pm on ITV