The Kerry Babies Case

Could medical records match up?

That sounds like a "none of our local catholic Irish girls would ever get pregnant so this whole tragedy is nothing to do with us" story.

Ties in with the attitudes of the time. Blame some obscure outsider and not accept responsibility.

Hope John gets justice, horrible death for anyone but to kill a newborn like that is cold blodded murder.

This case is bizarre in so many ways but here is a new feature which is unique in Irish criminal history - complaints that Gardai are pursuing their investigation into an unsolved murder

Not that there is anything unusual about people complaining that the Gardai are investigating a crime but three factors make this unique:

• The complaints are about a murder case
• the complaints are not from the criminal community (in fact, they are from a barrister!)
• the complaints are published in the Irish Times

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/kerry-babies-no-public-appetite-for-prosecution-of-mother-of-baby-john-barrister-1.4675961

The Mirror has an extensive report today. The exhumation was necessary because

This is not entirely surprising because, 40 years ago, forensic science was not yet able to use DNA.

It is shocking to think that Joanne Hayes would have been convicted of murdering Baby John if she or Jeremiah Locke had blood group A, matching that of Baby John.

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/crime/kerry-babies-exhumation-baby-john-25011503

Not true but that is what the media want you to believe. Harbison said he was unable to determine from his examination whether the baby had been born alive, a very different proposition. What is indisuputable is that the birth was concealed by the Hayes family and the baby was buried secretly.

This baby had no connection with the Cahersiveen baby whose murder is still being investiagated but the whole fiasco leading to the Tribunal would never have happened if the Hayes family had reported the birth of Joanne's baby as they are legally obliged to do (but then again the Hayes family would never have been showered with millions in taxpayer funds).

It was indeed a fiasco. But all aspects of the story should be highlighted. I can't imagine the pressures (societal and otherwise) that were primarily on women in that era, but that doesn't mean parts of the story should be forgotten.

"When questioned earlier by gardaí, Ms Hayes was adamant she had given birth to a baby in a field and placed its body on the land in the family farm.

Following the court hearing, her family members returned home, searched for the baby and found it in a plastic bag in a stagnant pool of water."

But she's right: nobody wants the mother of Baby John to be prosecuted for simply giving birth. It's criminal that a baby was murdered, not that he was born.

It also shouldn't be forgotten that an innocent baby was brutally murdered, its just disgraceful this lawyer is saying a murderer should be let off scott free because it might make a few people uncomfortable.

Yeah JH was treated very badly 40 years ago but things are different now and for her to call the investigation a "waste of resources" is just mind boggling.

The IT today has a bizarre column by FO'T in which he tries to compare the Kerry Babies Tribunal to the Ballyseedy massacre. There is a personal link between the two events - Stephen Fuller, the sole survivor of the massacre, was the uncle of Bridie Fuller, Joanne Hayes' aunt.

O'Toole has to admit the link is tenuous in the extreme

On the other hand, Bridie Fuller's role was crucial to the Tribunal. Of course, FOT does not mention her testimony because of the inconvenient fact that Bridie Fuller contradicted her niece at the Tribunal in regard to what happened to her baby.

That doesn't stop FOT fabricating a ludicrous and far-fetched analogy between the two events continuing, of course, the media's lies and distortions about the Tribunal. If you believe the media version of the Tribunal, read this thread before replying. And you might pause to wonder why FOT misses the most obvious link - Garda brutality in extracting confessions from the Hayes family. FOT did not have a brain freeze or a blind spot - the IT libel lawyers are well aware that the "Garda Brutality" lie - although believed almost universally - will land the publishers with another hefty bill for defamation from the relevant Gardai

Of course, dead men can't sue so FOT is free to drag the reputation of the late Mr. Justice Kevin Lynch through the mud once again, and this time to the point of absurdity where the Tribunal (i.e. Judge Lynch) is compared to the perpetrators of the Ballyseedy Massacre! That is an outrageous slur but FOT will get away with it because they Myth of the Kerry Babies Tribunal is firmly established.

FOT makes no mention of the Tribunal's stinging criticisms of the Garda incompetence and of their absurd theories trying to link Joanne Hayes to Baby John (more inconvenient facts).

We will never know who stabbed Baby John to death, even though DNA is solving many terrible crimes from decades past. Obviously, our media don't want to facts which might upset their narrative.

If they are the ones responsible they deserve to be locked up for a very long time.

What was done to Baby John was pure savagery.

They said the woman is in her 50s. If she's 55yo now, she would have been only 16yo in 1984.

She could have been any age from 11 to 20 in 1984.

I think the couple in question were both mature adults at that time - if speculation surrounding their identities is correct, that is.

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