The Indo Daily Revisited: Mysteriously abandoned – How three siblings found each other and their search a fourth foundling

Revisited: Mysteriously abandoned – How three siblings found each other & their search a fourth foundling

It was the story of two long-lost siblings, both abandoned in mysterious circumstances, that saw them find their way back to each other many years later.

A baby boy was discovered in a red tartan duffel bag in the driveway of a house on the outskirts of Belfast in 1962. Six years later, a baby girl was found in a phone box, again in a red tartan duffel bag, this time in Dundalk.

Without birth records or parents, the two abandoned babies - or ‘foundlings' as they are known - were adopted and grew up as David McBride and Helen Ward.

In 2020, the foundlings were reunited on the ITV show ‘Long-Lost Family’. But there was more to come – a third baby, left in a phone box in Drogheda in 1965, who turned out to be David and Helen’s brother, John.

Now, in the latest in this startling case, David, Helen and John are appealing for information about a fourth foundling, who they believe could be another full sibling.

Today Kevin Doyle is joined on the Indo Daily podcast by Irish Independent special correspondent Catherine Fegan, and by long-lost siblings Helen Ward and David McBride, who need help to find who they believe to be the final piece of their extraordinary family jigsaw.