The Kerry Babies Case

It was very common in the early 1980s for single women have babies adopted. By the end of the decade it had gone completely the other way and was rare for children to be given up for adoption. In that way it was a, decade of change.

I believe the media do not want to know because they haven’t run any investigative stories into this case recently - a case which transfixed the nation, a most shocking murder which the media had covered assiduously until the Hayes family got their compo.

Then came the sensational breakthrough with DNA identifying the parents of Baby John. The media dropped the story as quickly as decently possible and now refuse even to ask any questions of the parents’ loudmouth solicitor when he gets a platform to whine about their arrest. Posters here seem eager to mitigate or even explain away this brutal murder. And look at the nonsense posted here attacking the Tribunal Report - a plethora of deflections, fabrications, abuse and dismissals. I hope you see that the “informal adoption” story is baseless and wouldn’t absolve the parents.

I say there will be no justice for Baby John and no closure of the national wound if the DPP won’t bring charges. And that is unlikely unless some witness from 40 years ago comes forward (a chance in a million as no one came forward in all that time).

Worse, there is a media campaign to invent stories which exonerate the parents who have said nothing to explain themselves. And younger people will be told that it was the way things were in Ireland in the 1980s.

Definitely I would say locals know exactly who the people in question are, the only person we can be sure knew was the mother, there is the outside possibility that the father did not know at the time, who knows!

Even further afield than their direct locality research with the bits of info given both here and in the media can lead to exactly who but sure what's the point of knowing! The gardai know and that's all that really matters for now.

I think most people other than maybe those directly involved would like to know the answers, I don't think it's true that nobody cares or wants to know what happened him. If the people who are still alive who do know don't talk I don't know what the solution is.

This was a bigger story with a bigger impact on society than the West Cork murder. Yet it doesnt get a fraction of the media coverage.

Notwithstanding that Gardai are more likely to be prosecuted today than the 80s, the cosy relationship between crime reporters and the Gardai means that they get a lot less critical media coverage than they should.

The document is freely available from a government website (oireachtas.ie) Is there anything to show that access to it is restricted in any way?

Yes, anyone can download it. Any document laid before the Oireachtas is a matter of public record and can be freely accessed, viewed and downloaded by anybody. It's part of the democratic process.

The Oireachtas library can be searched online at https://opac.oireachtas.ie/knowvation/app/consolidatedSearch/

I hope to god this baby gets justice and the parents are charged! 3 days old when murdered. They damn well know what happened. One, or both of them!

You’re right, the parents are very likely known locally and the wider public could also unravel it from various bits of information available online. It doesn’t explain the murder - just raises all kinds of very unsettling questions.

Of course the Tribunal Report rubbished this idea and gave the Gardai a judicial tongue-lashing. That's why Gerry spent the rest of his life trying to salvage his reputation by repeating this nonsense to any reporter who'd listen. But then, 35years later, for no particular reason, the State disowned the Report and lavished millions on the Hayes family and their lawyers.

Then DNA identified the parents of the Caherciveen baby. Their solicitor is outraged, not about the massacre of his client's little baby, but because they were asked questions. The media spew his nonsense at us without apology.

So the State has no explanation for why the Hayes family confessed to the dreadful murder unless you think Kerry people will confess to anything if a Garda looks sideways at them. (Please don't say Garda brutality - the State has never claimed that there was any brutality toward the Hayes family. Because there wasn't - the family withdrew those claims 35 years ago even if the media pretend otherwise)

you tried and failed to show a single error in any of my posts so now you’re reduced to these abusive comments

Ultimately it's a situation where the Hayes family were not put under a fair trial, and there is a level of guilt administered by an extra-judicial proceeding, then it becomes somewhat of a fruit of the poisoned tree. Unless they go through a formal legal due process with all the protections (which they wouldn't), then I think they should be entitled to compensation.

We can't just go dragging people through these things, unless perhaps they have taken an oath to the state, no matter how well intentioned (which I can't say it even was tbh). If you think of the payment more as a punitive action against the state to protect the public institutions in the country, rather than a specific compensation to the Hayes family, then it becomes far more reasonable imo.

Again, this thread is starting to focus on the Hayes even thougb they've no connection to Baby John.