Kerry Babies Scandal | Broadsheet.ie

Joanne Hayes (right) and her sister Kathleen leaving the Kerry Babies Tribunal at Dublin Castle in 1985

This afternoon.

The Four Courts, Dublin

Solicitors for Joanne Hayes – Patrick Mann and Bernadette Cronin- make a statement following the issue of an apology and compensation from the State to Ms Hayes for her treatment during the Kerry Babies case.

It was part of a case brought by Ms Hayes, her sister Kathleen and brothers Michael and Edmund following their arrest by the Gardai in May 1984.

Via Irish Times:

Ms Hayes will receive €1.5 million, while her three siblings will each get €300,000.

Ms Hayes’ daughter, Ms McGuckin, who was a toddler at the time of the scandal, is to get a reported €100,000.

…As part of the settlement the family also secured declarations from the court that all findings or wrongdoing made against them by the Tribunal into the case were, that took place in late 1984- early 1985 were unfounded and incorrect.

The court also made a declaration that their questioning, arrest, charge and prosecution on dates between April and October 1984 were unfounded and in breach of their constitutional rights.

Kerry babies: Suffering and stress of ordeal finally behind us – Joanne Hayes (Irish Times)

Previously: Kerry Babies on Broadsheet

Eamopnn Farrell and Sam Boal/RollingNews

[Top: Joanne Hayes and (above) John Courtney (right) then head of the Garda Murder Squad, with Gerry O’Carroll at the Kerry Babies Tribunal in April 1985 ]

Thirty years on..

A retired detective inspector who was involved in the Kerry Babies investigation has called for the exhumation of the remains of both male infants for full DNA analysis.
Gerry O’Carroll still agrees with a prevailing Garda view at the time that Joanne Hayes, the woman at the centre of the saga, had twins.
“For that reason, there’s no other way to establish if the babies were twins, only by DNA analysis.,” he said.

Exhumation ‘would resolve’ Kerry Babies case (Donal Hickey, Irish Examiner)

Alternatively…

The Garda case against Joanna Hayes advanced a theory of superfecundation– that she had had been impregnated by two men around the same time – something that was theoretically possible but unprovable given the weakness of corroborating technical and forensic evidence.
For example there was no forensic evidence that Joanne had been stabbed in Joanne’s bed as the confessions obtained by the gardai had claimed.
Furthermore there was no evidence that the baby that was buried on the farm was not a stillbirth. The case built up by the gardai was riddled with inconsistencies.The DPP advised the Garda Superintendent to withdraw charges at the earliest opportunity…

The Books That Defined Ireland (Bryan Fanning and Tom Garvin)

Kerry Babies Case-the tipping point for Irish Women’s Rights (Nell Mcafferty, A Woman To Blame, Cork University Press)

(Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland)