Sisters reunited after 60 years apart

TWO SISTERS separated more than 60 years ago following a series of tragic family circumstances have been reunited after a lifetime of searching.

Esther Greenan (72) from Foxfield, Co Leitrim, who over the years had searched for her sister Annie-Theresa in Britain and Australia, finally met her at Knock airport last Sunday.

Esther’s daughter Bernadette said the pair have hardly stopped talking since they met. “It’s as if they were never apart. We grew up hearing all about Auntie Annie. My mother talked about her all the time. She was always in her heart and she never gave up although I suppose sometimes we wondered could she be dead.”

While she had never completely given up hope, Esther was astonished a month ago when she got a phone call saying Annie-Theresa Crosbie (69) was alive and well and living in Bradford. The breakthrough came when a niece contacted BBC’s  Crimewatch programme after detectives involved in a cold case murder investigation appealed for the public’s help in identifying the victim, who had been killed in 1974.

“My cousin Siobhán immediately thought of Auntie Annie and wondered could it be her,” said Esther’s daughter Bernadette. After a seven-month investigation the programme makers succeeded in identifying the real victim but in the process of searching they had tracked down the Leitrim woman’s long-lost sister. “All I had was one photograph of Annie taken when she was about 17,” said Esther.

The sisters were effectively orphaned when their mother, Esther, died at the age of 33 leaving five small children. The family had lived in Dublin and their father, John Crosbie, who was in the British army, died a few years later. They were initially left in the care of a 17-year-old aunt who could not care for five children aged from two to 13. They were sent to live with another aunt in Co Longford but her husband was ill and she had to put the children in care. “We were boarded with different families,” said Esther.

Christina the oldest child and Paddy the youngest were sent to relatives in England and the other three were separated. “We were never allowed to see each other,” said Esther. Annie eventually joined her oldest sister in England but they lost contact when Christina emigrated to Australia 50 years ago.

Brothers Paddy and Michael died in their 50s but with Christine due home on a holiday from Australia next month, the three sisters are determined to make up for lost time.

“Annie is a dote – she is the auntie we always dreamed of,” said Bernadette Greenan. “There was never any strain from the moment she and my mother met. She is just like us really. It is a very happy ending.”