Solving Kerry Babies case could close bleak chapter in our history

Some of the things that happened in the 1980s could never happen today. There was still a stigma attached to women who gave birth out of wedlock, such as Joanne Hayes, 25. She was the target of harsh treatment by some of the country’s leading lawyers; her private life held up to public glare and judged by the sexual mores of the era, largely influenced by the Catholic Church.

Graphically, poet and professor Brendan Kennelly compared her treatment to a medieval witch hunt, with the victims burning at the stake and the crowd dancing around the fire.

Years later, a reflective editorial in the Irish Examiner described how the Kerry Babies Tribunal transfixed the country as a “cocktail of voyeurism and sanctimony” which exposed the fault lines in Irish society.

It all started with the discovery of a baby boy’s body on a beach outside Caherciveen, on an April evening in 1984. The baby had been stabbed about 28 times. A Garda investigation got under way immediately.

Suspected cases of incest, people involved in extramarital affairs, and women known to have been pregnant were checked out in what was described by some people as a “sexual profiling” of the Caherciveen area.

No clues emerged locally, and gardaí then switched their focus to outside the area. Their inquiries led them to Joanne Hayes, who lived in Abbeydorney, about 60km away.

She had been admitted to hospital in Tralee around the same time as the finding of the Caherciveen baby, and was found to have given birth to a full-term baby, whose body was found later on the family farm in Abbeydorney.

Yet, following statements made by her in Garda custody, she was charged with the murder of the Caherciveen baby.

The charge was later dropped after the baby she had given birth to had been found on the farm at the spot she had previously pinpointed.

Also, forensic science proved the Caherciveen baby was not hers.

The male-dominated Kerry Babies Tribunal was then established, charged with investigating the Garda handling of the case and, importantly, how Ms Hayes came to be charged with a murder she could not have committed.

The tribunal’s findings were inconclusive but, significantly, found Ms Hayes could not have been the mother of the Caherciveen baby.

The Ireland of 2023 bears little resemblance to that of 1984/85. Contraceptives were available only on prescription for bona fide family planning and health purposes; there was no divorce; homosexual relationships were illegal; and legalised abortion was still decades away.

The Catholic Church still exercised a high level of moral authority — the scandals which were to seriously undermine that authority did not start to emerge until the 1990s.

The 82-day tribunal attracted an enormous amount of media coverage, with the first few weeks being especially dramatic as Ms Hayes spent five harrowing days in the witness box.

Under pressure of questioning, she broke down a number of times and, on one occasion, had to leave the room and needed medical attention during a break in the proceedings.

Upwards of 40 of her neighbours in Abbeydorney staged a protest outside the building where the tribunal was sitting, in Tralee. This was followed by protests by women’s groups from around the country, who came in their hundreds to protest outside the same building.

Judge Kevin Lynch, who headed the tribunal, received a Garda escort (including some gardaí who were before the tribunal) as he ran the gauntlet of jeering protesters while making his way from the building to his hotel across the street.

Judge Lynch then banned all protests from the vicinity of the tribunal building, with a threat to jail anyone who did not comply with his ruling.

News of the latest development in the investigation has come as a surprise. However, when the Garda cold case investigation began a few years ago, it was felt that new lines of inquiry were being followed and that some new evidence may have, perhaps, come to light.

Significantly, sources indicated at the time that advances in DNA, including what’s known as ‘familiar DNA’ whereby the DNA of relatives could lead investigators to suspects, could also be key to solving the Caherciveen baby’s murder case.

Joanne Hayes and her family have, for many years, returned to living quietly in north Kerry, eschewing all media attention.

They, more than anybody else, must be hoping for closure in this long-running saga.