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Ireland: Blonde girl taken away from Romani couple is their biological child

23 October 2013
2 minute read

The hysteria prompted by the international media reporting of Greek authorities recently removing a blonde girl from a Romani family there has now resulted in a scandalous blunder by authorities in Ireland. Police in Dublin removed a seven-year-old blonde girl from the custody of a Romani couple on Monday.

Irish Police were not sure whether the girl was actually the couple’s daughter. As news server Tn.cz reported, "this case could have been similar to that of little Marie, discovered a few days earlier in Greece."

DNA tests have now confirmed that the blonde girl is the biological daughter of the Romani couple in Ireland. According to several media outlets, an anonymous caller to police in Ireland drew their attention to the seven-year-old blonde girl with blue eyes, evidently after seeing media reports about authorities discovering a similarly blonde girl called Marie living with a Romani family in Farsala, Greece and removing her from the custody of the couple, who claimed to be her parents and allegedly had false documents for 10 children.

Other media outlets, however, reported that the Irish police officers had discovered the "fake" parents randomly when they saw the blonde, blue-eyed little girl with a bunch of Romani children in the small town of Tallaght. They reportedly asked the couple claiming the child for an explanation of her difference, and the parents showed them documents which did not satisfy them.  

Irish authorities immediately took the child away from her family and are said to have completely ignored the claims of the oldest sister of the blonde Romani girl. "She’s my sister. We have all the documentation necessary and we can prove she is who we say she is. This is an enormous mistake. We will sue," the sister said prior to the DNA results being reported.

The BBC reports this is not the only such blunder to have been committed in Ireland after the outbreak of anti-Romani hysteria in Europe over the case of the "blonde little Greek angel". Also on Monday, Irish authorities took a two-year-old boy away from his Romani parents.

The boy was returned to his family the next day after tests proved he was their biological son.

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