81-year-old Irish woman finally meets 104-year-old mother after over 60-year search

An 81-year-old Irish woman finally met her 104-year-old mother after over 60 years of searching.

Eileen Macken grew up at a Dublin orphanage and had never met her birth mother.

Last year, Macken contacted Irish broadcaster RTÉ and shared her difficulties finding her mother to Liveline radio show host Joe Duffy.

After her appearance on the radio, a genealogist tracked her mother to Scotland earlier in the year.

Now Macken’s search that began when she was 19 years old is over.

Last month, Macken decided to “take the bull by the horns,” she told RTÉ, and made the trip to Scotland with her daughter, husband and son-in-law for an in-person meeting with her long-lost mother.

WATCH: 69-year-old woman reunited with her long-lost mother who thought she died at birth

1:49 69-year-old woman reunited with her long-lost mother who thought she died at birth

She travelled to her mother’s home and when she knocked on the door it was answered by a man who turned out to be her half-brother.

“I told him I was from Ireland and that I had found my mum here and could we come in to see her, and he said ‘certainly,'” Macken said.

“I went over to see her and she is the most beautiful lady,” Macken recalled. “She was reading the newspaper and when she saw me, I said we were from Ireland and she said, ‘I was born in Ireland.’

“She was thrilled and never let go of my hand.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "She was thrilled and never let go of my hand."

Macken said she got a “great welcome” from not only her mother, whose name is Elizabeth, but from two half-brothers she met as well.