The Kerry Babies
“Murder cannot be hid long.” (Shakespeare.)
Contrary to what the Bard said some murders can be hidden for
decades. A murder investigation has been mounted last month into a
killing which took place 34 years ago.
Chief Superintendent Walter O ‘Sullivan says they are investigating the death,
“. . . as if it happened today.”
On Saturday 14th April 1984 a dead baby with 28 stab
wounds and a broken neck was found on the beach of White Strand, County
Kerry. A murder hunt got under way led by Superintendent J. P.
Sullivan. On Thursday 26th April Detective Sergeant Gerry O ‘Carroll of
the then
“Murder Squad” arrived from Dublin.
Almost every female of child-bearing age in the Cahersiveen area was treated as a suspect.
Then it was established that Joanne Hayes from
Drumcunning Lower, Abbeydorney, almost 40 miles away, had given birth
but there was no baby as a result. Detective Superintended John Courtney
and Detective P.J. Browne, both from the Murder Squad, (known as
“The Heavy Gang”
in Dublin), arrived in Kerry on 29th April. All three Murder Squad
Gardaà were Kerry men. Courtney was from Anascaul, the native place of
explorer Tom Crean and O ‘Carroll and Brown were both natives of
Listowel; a market town in north Kerry famous for fiction-writers.
Joanne Hayes along with three members of her family were taken to Tralee
Garda station where Joanne Signed a confession that she had killed the
“Cahirsiveen baby”
and her family signed statements that they had witnessed the killing
and driven 40 miles to dispose of the body. (Journalist Joe Joyce says,
“The statements had the kind of flourish well known to those of us
familiar at the time with confessions in Garda stations . . .”) The Hayes family could not have committed the crimes that they allegedly confessed to.
Joanne had told the detectives that she did have a baby,
that it died at birth and she had buried it on the family farm. She
gave an exact location of where she put it. More than once she offered
to accompany detectives to the scene. Was her offer(s) accepted? No. The
Gardaà conducted a half-assed search and, of course, found nothing.
Members of her family located the baby’s body exactly where she had said
it was. Blood tests proved that she was not the mother of the
“Caherciveen baby”
but the Gardaà proceeded to charge her with the murder. (I can’t find
any evidence that a file had been sent to the DPP.) When the case came
to court the state announced that it was not proceeding.
When it was established that Joanne Hayes was telling the
truth about the death of her baby and the disposal of its body the
Gardaà had to take a different track. They put forward the
superfecundation theory whereby Joanne could have had twins be two
different fathers.
A subsequent internal garda enquiry failed and a public
tribunal of enquiry, chaired by Mr. Justice Kevin Lynch, started in
January 1985. It lasted 84 days, 109 witnesses were called and 61,000
questions were asked (One lawyer asked Joanne 2,216 personal
questions). Ostensibly the tribunal was an examination of Garda
behaviour during the interrogation of the Hayes family but turned out to
be a concerted effort to humiliate, embarrass and devastate Joanne
Hayes and her family. Professor Brendan Kennelly described it at the
time as being like,
“A medieval witch hunt.” Kerry’s Eye editor Ger Colleran says,
“Everyone
knew Joanne was innocent but if that was proved then a lot of very
powerful and important people would be shown to have misbehaved badly.
The system would have been rocked, and careers ruined. So there was only
one option – to destroy her.”
When the decent people of north Kerry, and further
afield, decided to stage a peaceful protest Justice Lynch threatened
to jail them if they disrupted the tribunal. The learned Dublin-born
judge described them as
“raucous, ignorant, urban dwellers” and Detective P.J. Browne knocked great fun out of describing Abbeydorney as
“Babby-dorney.”
In his report Justice Lynch accused the Hayes family of
“barefaced lies and blatant perjury” but the Gardaà only
“gilded the lily” and Detective Superintendent John Courtney simply,
“elevated wishful thinking to the status of fact.”
Justice Minister, Michael Noonan agreed with Justice Lynch’s report
and likened his powers of deduction to those of Sherlock Holmes. However
not all politicians felt that Justice Lynch had anything in common with
the sleuth of Baker Street. Senator Mary Robinson who was to become
President Of Ireland and later United Nations High Commissioner, asked
how the Hayes family came to give signed confessions to the murder
of a baby which,
“ . . .for scientific reasons among others, they were not in a position to have carried out or to have any part in.” The Dáil committee on women’s rights described the questioning of Joanne as
“insensitive, harrowing, horrific and shameful”.
Kevin Lynch worked hard to protect the establishment and
he was well rewarded for it. He became a Judge of the Supreme Court in
1996.
Gerry O ‘Carroll, who was later promoted to Inspector,
spent years calling for a DNA test which he claimed would prove that
Joanne Hayes had twins. He knows now. In late 2017 a DNA test proved
beyond all doubt that Joanne Hayes was not the mother of the
“Cahersiveen baby.” And there is no match between the baby and
anyone Whose DNA is held on the State’s DNA database.
On January 16th Superintendent Flor Murphy offered a
public apology on behalf of the Garda Siochana, to Joanne Hayes for the
“stress and pain” she suffered as a result of being wrongly accused of killing the
“Caversiveen baby.” He said,
“I
believed it was important to exonerate Joanne Hayes once and for all. A
wrong had been visited on her and saying sorry was the right thing to
do.” And Acting Garda Commissioner Donal O Cualain sent a letter of apology followed by a phone call to Joanne Hayes.
On the same day Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he wanted to,
". . . reiterate the apology the Gardaà made to Joanne Hayes and also to make that apology on behalf of the State as well". He went on to say that Ms Hayes was,
"Very badly treated by our State and by our society.” Mr Varadkar said:
"I
can't offer compensation here now but it's something that I think we
can discuss with her representatives in the period ahead."
In recent days there have been numerous requests on social media to have
Joanne Hayes’s book, My Story
re-published. It was first published by Brandon Books in 1985.
O'Brien Press has acquired the Brandon name and the rights for selected
titles from its catalogue in 2012. The MD of O’ Brien press told me that
Joanne Hayes' My Story was not one of these titles.
The Garda’s serious crime review team (SCRT) have now launched a murder inquiry into the
“Caherciveen baby’s” death and Superintendent Murphy has asked for the public’s help.
* * * * *
When I was writing the above a paragraph in Ireland’s Own
jumped out at me. I don’t think the author was thinking of the Kerry
Babies when he wrote it but I believe it’s worth including,
“A time
comes when the damage done to us has to be acknowledged and realised.
Who knows what surprises may come our way when we clear out the space
for them. The arrival of February is an especially apt time to take
stock in this way, the best kind of spring cleaning.”
See Picture Below (courtesy of Irish Examiner.)
Click on author's byline for bio and list of other works published by Pencil Stubs Online.
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