The Kerry Babies Case

Extremely far fetched. Your story involves multiple people neglecting to mention a local, pregnant teenager to gardai during a huge investigation into a murdered baby. Perhaps you don't know Caherciveen. It's a small, extremely rural town 40 miles from Killarney where most families go back generations and at that time, every one knew every one else in the locality. The mother, at the very least know there was a possibility that that baby was hers. Perhaps the father wasn't aware, it depends to what extent it was concealed but there certainly weren't local teachers and priests walking round knowing all about that pregnancy and staying quiet

When are the DNA tests being released?

What makes you think they will be released?

You make it sound like a TV series, waiting for the next episode, or something.

Apparently the gardai did check with hospitals and GP - thats how Joanne Hayes became a suspect - She had been pregnant, now not pregnant but no baby.

A post on here earlier- now deleted by mods I think- suggested relevant Garda files went missing from Cahersiveen station. I don't know if there's any truth in that, but it wouldn't surprise me.

It's a public interest story.

A unknown child was murdered.

Maybe eventually the baby will get an identity.

If the results are negative the parents can get on with their lives.

To be fair it is a real life soap opera storyline, whether you agree with it or not.

The only person to blame for the circus is the person who murdered a defenceless baby.

I remember being in one of the pubs in the mid 90s. An English man had bought the old train station at Kells to live in (he sold it a few years later) and was down chatting away to us. He mentioned the Kerry babies and the whole pub suddenly went silent all looking at him, like you would see in a movie. 30 seconds later everyone talking and every theory under the sun was discussed until we were all thrown out of the pub in the early hours of the morning. Nothing is secret down there. If there was anything to be known someone would have spilled.

Thats why we all thought that the parents werent locals. Turns out they werent local. Not that far away, but far enough back in those days. But someone close worked local.

The baby could have been born at home, with no outsiders aware of it. To set an adoption process in train would have involved bringing other people into the loop….with the resultant risk of the secret getting out.

Some people would have gone to extraordinary lengths to keep a ‘scandal’ hidden at the time.

I'm sure it's within the guards gift to release relevant information in a murder investigation.

The solicitor is so lippy he could well be out in the media very quick if it's not the parents, or may even go for a preemptive media strike if it is the parents.

Failing the above there will no doubt be a leak to the media.

Ultimately a tell all appearance on the late late show maybe.

I'm sure we will all get wind of the DNA results at some point.

There were multiple local theories. I'd imagine most of them were wide of the mark. I think a lot of the people throwing theories out in this thread don't understand that things in the very rural West of Ireland work differently to the rest of the country. They still do in many ways but certainly in the 80s it was even more backwards than the rest of Ireland. There aren't too many blow ins and a lot would be known about every family going back generations. Which families were living with extreme poverty, incest, mental health issues, violence, poor levels of education would be public knowledge but people keep accepted it as it was. However, in this investigation any family with that kind of history or behaviour would have been quickly identified in the community and checked.

At a guess, something may have been said within the family in recent times which encouraged the "sibling" to go forward for testing. Parents often start to confide in their children as they grow older

Ah yes a small tear, like a paper cut you won't feel a thing 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Of course you can give birth without medical assistance, I never said you couldn't. It is however extremely risky......women still die in childbirth.

We don't know what happened here other than a young girl gave birth , baby lived for 3 days and was then murdered.

We don’t even know for sure it was a ‘young girl’. A woman is capable of giving birth from her early teens into middle age.

The only thing we really can say about the mother is that is likely she was unmarried at the time.

Wasn't it this trawl of local hospitals that brought Joanne Hayes into the loop because she had attended Tralee Hospital for aftercare following the stillbirth of her baby and that's what started the whole nightmare for her.

I myself was an unmarried mother in 1978. I was 17 and doing my Leaving Cert. I came from a very rural village in the west of Ireland. It was a horrendous time in my life and I carried the scars of shame for very many years after. It wasn't just the Church that caused me to feel shame but "Other Women" who delighted in my fall. Funnily enough I received far more compassion from men.

I was under huge pressure from my family and Cura to give my baby up for adoption but I kept him and later married his Dad. I am so glad I kept him but the point I'm trying to make is I had loads of choices. Elope to England, adoption, disappear for a while and return as though nothing had happened.

This story has upset me greatly. It's not just about an unmarried mother. This was a savage attack on a helpless baby. The attack was manic. It is murder and if I read someone had done this to a helpless baby last week, I would want to see justice done even if I had to wait 40 years for that justice.