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A mother from Belfast, whose son is missing in Lebanon, has appealed to the UK and Irish governments to help find him and secure his return to Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
Catherine Flanagan said she had been battling to get her son David back after he was taken by his father and family.<\/p>\n
The High Court in Belfast ruled in 2023 that David must be returned to Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI filed at the High Court in Belfast for an order to compel him to return David and that was granted in July 2023,\u201d Ms Flanagan told BBC Radio Ulster\u2019s Good Morning Ulster programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe 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\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In January this year, Catherine said she was told by her former husband that if she came to Lebanon, she would get her son.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid\u2019s father had given assurances that if I came to Lebanon, that he would give me David back, but he didn\u2019t,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got there [Lebanon], I was brought to their house in Beirut and from the beginning I had no freedom whatsoever.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t allowed to go out without them with me, I wasn\u2019t allowed to go to the mall, I wasn\u2019t allowed to take David out, I wasn\u2019t allowed to even be alone in the room with David.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Ms Flanagan said she felt \u201cdeeply controlled\u201d in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am just so worried about the emotional toll that it is bound to have on him, that his mother isn\u2019t allowed to see him,” she said.<\/p>\n
She described what the last year had been like for her and its emotional impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust thinking of David constantly, every moment of every day, trying to de-escalate, trying to refrain from upping the ante with his father.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to persuade him, trying to come to a compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Flanagan said it was \u201cdesperately painful\u201d being separated from her son.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour mind is always on him, anything I am doing, I am thinking about him,” she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so worried about the security situation in Lebanon as well, the bombings and the real heightened tensions.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she wanted support from the UK government and the Irish government to help her and that the situation \u201ccannot go on\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt 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\u2019t even know where the child is,\u201d Ms Flanagan added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a place like Lebanon currently, it is not safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t been approached by the government, I haven\u2019t been approached by the Irish government even though I\u2019m approaching them through political representatives.<\/p>\n
“[DUP leader] Gavin Robinson has been pushing and I\u2019ve been in contact with [Sinn F\u00e9in leader] Mary Lou MacDonald’s office, Michelle O\u2019Neill and Deirdre Hargey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really need a diplomatic solution to this, I love David and his father loves David \u2013 there has to be a compromise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has to be a child-centred, a David-centred solution to this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Flanagan’s former husband has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n