Following the case of Maria in Greece, above, Mick McCaffrey, of the Sunday World, is reporting that Gardaí took a seven-year-old blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl from a Roma family in Tallaght, Dublin yesterday and placed her in HSE care.

Mr McCaffrey writes:

“Gardaí received a tip-off from a member of the public that a six or seven year-old girl was living with a large Roma family but looked nothing like any of her supposed siblings.”

“Officers from the child protection unit attached to Tallaght station called to the home on Monday afternoon and spoke with two Roma adults. There were a number of children in the house and one was a young girl who had blonde hair and striking blue eyes. She looked nothing like anybody else in the house but the adults maintained that the girl was their daughter.”

“They were asked to produce a birth certificate but could not find one. In the meantime gardaí made contact with a hospital consultant in and asked if it was possible for Romas to give birth to blonde children, considering their natural dark complexions.”

“The consultant said that this would be extremely unusual.”

Blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl, 7, taken from Roma family in Dublin (Sunday World)

Pic: BBC