Belfast mother pleas for help returning son from Lebanon

Catherine Flanagan is seeking the return of her son David to Northern Ireland

A mother from Belfast, whose son is in Lebanon, has appealed to the UK and Irish governments to help find him and secure his return to Northern Ireland.

Catherine Flanagan said she had been battling to get her son David back after he was taken by his father and family.

The High Court in Belfast ruled in 2023 that David must be returned to Northern Ireland.

He was to be handed over on or before 17:00 on 18 August 2023 at Frankfurt Airport in Germany, but that did not happen.

“I filed at the High Court in Belfast for an order to compel him to return David and that was granted in July 2023,” Ms Flanagan told BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme.

“He was ordered to bring David back to Northern Ireland, to meet us in Germany at Frankfurt Airport on or before 18 August at 5pm 2023 and he didn’t do that.”

In January this year, Catherine said she was told by her former husband that if she came to Lebanon, she would get her son.

“David’s father had given assurances that if I came to Lebanon, that he would give me David back, but he didn’t,” she added.

“When I got there [Lebanon], I was brought to their house in Beirut and from the beginning I had no freedom whatsoever.

“I wasn’t allowed to go out without them with me, I wasn’t allowed to go to the mall, I wasn’t allowed to take David out, I wasn’t allowed to even be alone in the room with David.”

Catherine Flanagan says she thinks of her son "constantly"

Ms Flanagan, who's story was first reported by UTV, said she felt “deeply controlled” in Lebanon.

“I am just so worried about the emotional toll that it is bound to have on him, that his mother isn’t allowed to see him," she said.

She described what the last year had been like for her and its emotional impact.

“Just thinking of David constantly, every moment of every day, trying to de-escalate, trying to refrain from upping the ante with his father.

“Trying to persuade him, trying to come to a compromise.”

Ms Flanagan said it was “desperately painful” being separated from her son.

“Your mind is always on him, anything I am doing, I am thinking about him," she said.

“I am so worried about the security situation in Lebanon as well, the bombings and the real heightened tensions.”

'It's a terrible situation'

She said she wanted support from the UK government and the Irish government to help her and that the situation “cannot go on”.

“It is not a tenable situation, where a court in Belfast orders that a child, a baby, is to be returned to his mother and that mother doesn’t even know where the child is,” Ms Flanagan added.

“In a place like Lebanon currently, it is not safe.

“I haven’t been approached by the government, I haven’t been approached by the Irish government even though I’m approaching them through political representatives.

"[DUP leader] Gavin Robinson has been pushing and I’ve been in contact with [Sinn Féin leader] Mary Lou MacDonald's office, Michelle O’Neill and Deirdre Hargey.

“I really need a diplomatic solution to this, I love David and his father loves David – there has to be a compromise.

“There has to be a child-centred, a David-centred solution to this.”

Ms Flanagan's former husband has been contacted for comment.