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Womanhood on trial: The letters received by the Taoiseach during the Kerry Babies saga

Documents released under the 30-year rule show the public interest in the tragedies.
A NEWBORN BABY boy has been found dead near Caherciveen, county Kerry. The body was found abandoned on the White Strand, about three miles from the town, and a post-mortem is being carried out by the State pathologist Dr John Harbison.  The baby is believed to have died about three days ago.

These were the words from an RTÉ news reporter on 14 April 1984 which would leave Ireland a forever changed nation.

A tragic discovery of a newborn baby – who had been stabbed to death – was always going to shock the nation, but nobody was prepared for the media and social firestorm to come.

Over the next 20 months, Irish people would take a hard look at Ireland’s treatment of women, as well as its patriarchal systems, attitudes to sex and the work of An Garda Síochána.

From local councillors to the Taoiseach, every politician in the land was dragged into the saga.

Papers just released under the 30-year rule show how much correspondence Garret Fitzgerald had to deal with in relation to the case following the then-Justice Minister Michael Noonan’s decision to order a tribunal of inquiry into the garda handling of the case.

Letters sent to him include one from the wives of the three gardaí who were involved in the questioning of the woman at the centre of the entire story – 25-year-old Joanne Hayes from Abbeydorney.

Although their letter is redacted, it is clear from the reply that they discussed the transfer of their husbands out of their original duties.

In his reply, the private secretary to the Taoiseach said the Commissioner had informed the Justice Minister that he had “considered it right and indeed necessary to transfer from their present posts most of those who were assigned from the Technical Bureau to the Kerry Babies investigation”.

He was clear that this was not a disciplinary decision, but one that was made “in the interests of the Force”.

The Taoiseach said he would not intervene in the matter.

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The letter came over a year after the case had rocked the establishment.

Sexual profile of Kerry

Following the discovery in April of the previous year of the newborn, by now known as the Caherciveen Baby, gardaí arrived at the Hayes family’s door. Their inquiries led them to investigate women in the area who could possibly have given birth to ‘unwanted’ children at the time. It was known in the area that Joanne was in a relationship with Jeremiah Locke, a married man who had fathered her daughter. People were also aware that she was pregnant for a second time.

PastedImage-9745 Joanne Hayes RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

Unknown, however, was that Joanne had already given birth – to a baby boy in a field on her farm at Abbeydorney. She initially told gardaí this. She believed that her son had died and panicked, returning to the farmhouse. The next day, she returned to the spot to find the baby’s body. She put the remains in a paper bag and then a plastic bag before placing them in a pond elsewhere on the 65-acre farm.

She and her family were questioned about the Cahirciveen baby. She told them she had given birth on the farm and that the baby’s body was still on the property. Gardaí did not believe her and continued to press her and other family members about the baby found on White Strand with stab wounds.

Somehow – after lengthy interrogations – inconsistent confessions were made that she gave birth in the house and killed the baby by stabbing it with a carving knife and beating its head with a bath brush.

Her family members also confessed to being involved with the disposal of the body into the sea near Dingle.

On 1 May 1984, Joanne was charged before a special court with the murder of an unnamed infant and remanded in custody.

According to a government memo written ahead of the tribunal:

Although the charge did not specifically allude to the Cahirciveen baby, this was the only unnamed infant known to the gardaí to have died at that time.

A day later, a member of the Hayes family brought gardaí to the spot where Joanne’s baby was actually buried on the farm.

The newborn would become known as the Abbeydorney Baby. A post-mortem did not give conclusive results and it was unclear whether the baby had lived after childbirth.

Gardaí now had two deceased newborns and just one mother.

Blood tests showed that Joanne and Locke were not the parents of the Cahirciveen Baby – although this did not stop theories that she could have mothered twins to different fathers.

People began to talk about superfecundation where a woman could conceive twins by two men if she had sex with them both within 24 hours, and showed the lens through which a young unmarried woman like Hayes was viewed.

The forensic tests also did not deter gardaí from pressing ahead with charges. They began to prepare a book of evidence against the Hayes family in relation to the Cahirciveen Baby.

Eventually, the DPP told them to drop the charges, basing his decision on evidence available.

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At this point in the saga, the media turned against the gardaí, critical of their handling of the investigation.

Subsequently, the Hayes family complained about the alleged ill-treatment which included assault, harassment and oppressive conduct. They said the statements given to gardaí were done so under duress.

As pressure built, the Garda Commissioner established an investigation, asking two senior chief superintendents to report back to him.

However there were a number of serious problems with the probe. The Hayes family refused to be interviewed, instead handing in prepared statements. According to a government document at the time, this meant there was “no opportunity of clearing up contradictory aspects or of assessing the truthfulness of the witnesses”.

The same approach was taken by some gardaí who were involved in the interrogations of the Hayes family. They handed in prepared statements to reiterate their earlier testimony. It led investigators to believe that some aspects of their work were being concealed.

Joanna Hayes Kerry Babies Tribunals Det Sergeant Gerard O Carroll about to resume evidence after the lunch break during the Kerry Babies Tribunal. /Photocall Ireland /Photocall Ireland

The garda report also said that no explanation was given for why gardaí pressed on with charges after the blood test results emerged. It also noted that gardaí never asked Joanne Hayes to point out where she had disposed of her baby.

The government memo summarises the main jist of the report:

To all intents and purposes, active investigation of the case ceased once the charges had been preferred against the Hayes family, notwithstanding the finding of the second baby. The conclusion of the investigating gardaí from the finding of the second baby seemed to be that Ms Hayes must have had twins although the results of the forensic tests on the blood groups clearly threw serious doubt on this.

The Minister for Justice’s memo goes as far as saying the Commissioner believed that investigating officers were “grossly negligent” in their handling of the case. He considered a sworn inquiry was needed to “establish what really happened”.

Calling for government to back his decision, Michael Noonan said the issues involved were “clearly of major public importance and warrant the most searching investigation”.

“Moreover, as a result of all the publicity the case has received, there is a very large public interest dimension to the case,” he added.

His request was granted and a Judicial Inquiry was announced.

Over 82 days in 1985, Justice Kevin Lynch heard evidence from Joanne Hayes, the man she was in a relationship with, Jeremiah Locke, the investigating gardaí and others.

As the tribunal dragged on, public opinion was firmly on Joanne Hayes’s side. People were horrified at the line of questioning she faced – she was asked about contraception, her sexual experiences, her menstrual cycle – as part of attempts to portray her as capable of anything. She broke down in tears numerous times and required medical attention while giving evidence.

Locke was also asked whether Hayes was a virgin when they first started seeing each other. He was asked “how many other boys or men had Joanne had intercourse with”.

PastedImage-87652 Eamonn Farrell / Photocall Ireland Eamonn Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

The tribunal eventually concluded that the Hayes family wilfully and freely gave false statements to the gardaí, finding that they perjured themselves when talking about garda ill-treatment.

It also found that Joanne was the mother of just the Abbeydorney baby. Despite forensic evidence to the contrary, the Tribunal also found that she had killed her child by suffocation and blows to the head.

The worst Judge Lynch said about the garda investigation was that it was “slipshod”, that their searches of the Hayes farm were “deplorably inadequate” and that they didn’t find the second baby straight away was “deplorable”.

He said that it was Joanne’s own “guilty conscience” that led her to tell gardaí about the Cahirciveen baby. He noted that the second child was probably “illegitimate”.

What is so unbelievably extraordinary about two women in Co Kerry, in one of the weeks in 1984, both deciding to do away with their babies? The tribunal accepts that it is something of a co-incidence, but does not accept that there is anything really unbelievable about it.’

A catalyst for change

Neighbours travelled to Tralee to picket the proceedings, while feminist groups came together to protest against the treatment of women by authorities. In the same year, schoolgirl Ann Lovett died after keeping her pregnancy secret. She was found at a holy grotto in Granard with a stillborn infant boy next to her.

It was also the year in which school teacher Eileen Flynn lost an appeal against her firing. She lost her job because she became pregnant outside of marriage. When first dismissing her case, the Circuit Court judge said that the nuns in the school had been too lenient with her.

Among the letters to the Justice Minister following the tribunal is one from the Irish Women’s Forum which had just passed a motion of no confidence in the Irish legal system.

The Dail Committee on Women’s Rights described the questioning of Hayes as “insensitive … very, very frightening… harrowing and quite horrific. . . and shameful.”

In her book A Woman To Blame, journalist Nell McCafferty looked at how Hayes was treated by gardaí and the judge and how this reflected the attitudes towards women at the time.

A measure of his temperament and attitudes to women in the Kerry Babies case is the judicial pronouncement made at its end by Justice Lynch. He asked, “What have I got to do with the women of Ireland in general? What have the women of Ireland got to do with this case?” He presumed to lecture Irish women on what he saw as their misguided support for Hayes in her agony, by sending her flowers and Mass cards.

McCafferty described Hayes’ case as “medieval”: a young woman from a tiny village being questioned about how she conceived a child by a married man.

The author concluded that women came together because they felt that womanhood itself was on trial.

Joanne Hayes still lives in Kerry and refuses all requests for interviews about the time. Her long-time solicitor Pat Mann makes some brief media appearances. Earlier this month, he told Newstalk that forensic testing of Baby John (the Cahirciveen Baby) would still be welcome.

Read: RTÉ to rebroadcast the Ann Lovett letters>

Read: History lesson: What happened during the 1983 abortion referendum?>

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30 Comments
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    Mute Smiley
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    Dec 30th 2015, 7:03 AM

    It’s unreal when you remember it was only 30 years ago.

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    Mute James Delaney
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:52 AM

    Its unreal when you think what happened – tital confusion.

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    Mute Get Lost Eircodes
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    Dec 30th 2015, 1:16 PM

    No total corruption by the Heavy Gang subsequently whitewashed by the judiciary which unbelievably facilitated a libel case by the corrupt heavy gang against Hayes.

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    Mute Dell
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    Dec 30th 2015, 11:41 AM

    I remember this. I remember the Ann Lovett death too. The guards were most definitely wrong but they were fuelled by a society that thrived on gossiping and belittling, that were in church on Sundays praying for the forgiveness of sinners and in corner shops an hour later ostricising unmarried mothers. We have come a long way in a lot of respects but in recent times we still had the courtroom of people shaking a convicted rapists hand, we still have people making comments about women keeping their legs shut, people criticising single mothers but never single fathers… We still have a long way to go.

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Dec 30th 2015, 12:20 PM

    Well said Dell.

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    Mute Martin Gallagher
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    Dec 30th 2015, 8:58 PM

    Very well said Dell. As a society we’re very liberal now about gay rights but an ordinary woman’s right to decide on what’s best is another matter? Time to amend our outdated constitution, I’d think?

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    Mute Carlovian77
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:44 AM

    As a member of AGS this case really saddens and sickens me – I remember it from when I was young. The ‘men’ that were sent from Dublin to Kerry to ‘get the truth’ did so at the expense of Joanne Hayes’s dignity and her good name. A lot of their ‘investigation work’ took place on high stools listening to idle gossip and accepting it as the truth. As the members were natives of the area people willingly spoke to them. Gerry O’Carrolls notion of there been two separate fathers of twins just shows how desperate they were to be seen to getting a result for Management above in Garda H.Q. and showed him for the fool he his. I have nothing but admiration for Joanna Hayes and the manner in which she has dealt with the whole situation – I do hope one day in the right forum she will tell her story, people need to hear about their appalling treatment. The worst and most shameful part of the whole scenario is that it never stopped the members from being promoted – the old boys school and all that which unfortunately is still around to some extent. I love my job and things have moved on but I’m not naive to the bulls*** that still goes on at times – quite nauseating really.

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    Mute Get Lost Eircodes
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    Dec 30th 2015, 11:08 AM

    Did O’Carroll block a book by Joanne Hayes?

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    Mute Carlovian77
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    Dec 30th 2015, 11:33 AM

    Yes, you’re correct actually. If memory serves me right Nell McCafferty was one of the co-authors. Quinnsworth at the time stocked it and the 4 members of AGS who were named in it took an action against them and were disgracefully awarded €127,000 – the absolute shame of it. I remember Gerry O’Carroll taking on Martin ‘The Generals’ daughter on the Late Late Show when she was trying to paint him as an ordinary every day Joe Soap! I would love someone like Nell McCafferty turn the tables on O’Carroll and show him up for the clown he is.

    I’m always amazed at these former members who take to ‘writing’ articles for newspapers when they retire – it clearly shows who was touting to them all along. One of O’Carroll’s Colleagues involved in the Kerry Babies scandal did the same when he retired but it was well known he was touting to the National newspaper and the same man would have no issue with disciplining a Garda on the beat if they weren’t dressed as per Code guidelines – the higher you go up the worse the hypocrisy gets!

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    Mute Paddy o'brian
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    Dec 30th 2015, 8:22 PM

    They got promoted alright and most of them became and died winos afterwards on their fat I’ll gotten pensions

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    Mute Amanda Whelan
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    Dec 30th 2015, 6:19 AM

    Pity DNA was not around at the time to enable the authorities to conduct a fair analysis of who the paternal parents were of the baby on the beach and on the farm in question ?, Would have cleared up a lot of unanswered questions perhaps stopped a witch hunt and found the fathers of these children more accountable. RIP to the infants

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    Mute Nick
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:51 AM

    It’s around now tho.

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    Mute John B
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:04 AM

    So true, there is someone in Kerry hoping that will never happen though, and too many vested interests in the Gardai and judiciary to ensure it never happens.

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    Mute Nick
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:50 AM

    Wonder if retired detective o Carroll will give us an exclusive in the evening herald this week? What a sad society we were then, more interested in who was having sex with who rather than the welfare of the children born as a result. Don’t think any arm of the state covered themselves in glory back then.

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Dec 30th 2015, 12:19 PM

    As a society we still don’t care about children that are born, just once they are born! The statistics for homeless children and child poverty is a national disgrace.

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    Mute Keano
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    Dec 30th 2015, 3:09 PM

    A lot of people in the country don’t care about unborn children either, sadly.

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    Mute Valerie Marjoram
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:30 AM

    I remember this. I was just 11. It left a profound impact on me, not least a healthy distrust of authority and disgust of politicians. Attitudes such as those portrayed by the gardaí normally come from the top down.

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    Mute Joe Conway
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    Dec 30th 2015, 2:11 PM

    About 10 years after Anne Lovatt’s death I was up in Granard for a business meeting and got there early. It was a grey cold wet day and I drove up to the church and walked around to the grotto where she died with her infant son. It brought home to me what a truly awful for a young woman to die.

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    Mute men in black hoods
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:03 AM

    Backward holy joe/sephine’s

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    Mute prop joe
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    Dec 30th 2015, 12:04 PM

    The incompetence if the cops and judiciary is incredible. Hard to believe the lack of professionalism in the forces of law and order.

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    Mute Paddy o'brian
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    Dec 30th 2015, 8:28 PM

    Their incompetence and lack of professionalism stemmed from the fact that they were unaccountable to no one hence incompetence, the two go together like a train and a track

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    Mute Peter Higgins
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    Dec 30th 2015, 6:09 PM

    This Gerry O’Carroll guy was the laughing stock of the nation at the time – so, what happens – he’s promoted. Only in Ireland!!

    37
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    Mute SEAN LYNCH
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    Dec 30th 2015, 3:40 PM

    I remember this case when I was a young fellah, reading back now makes me realise how horrifically Joanne was treated, nowadays she would have been treated and given counselling. I do hope she gets to tell the harrowing story of childbirth out of wedlock in a sleepy village, to a new generation of understanding ears,bless her

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    Mute Get Lost Eircodes
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    Dec 30th 2015, 4:07 PM

    She did tell the story but was sued successfully by the Guards who ran the investigation.

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    Mute Robert Beatty
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    Dec 30th 2015, 2:03 PM

    Mad story jaysus we really did have our heads buried firmly up our arses

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    Mute Tim O'Halloran
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    Dec 30th 2015, 5:09 PM

    Only 30 years ago. Remember Kenny, Bertie and many more were already TDs at that time. They seemed to have no problem with how this case was handled at the time. They stayed silent about this and much else besides. When they pretend now to be enlightened and modern, take it with a pinch of salt.

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    Mute Mark Danger Sinnott
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    Dec 30th 2015, 5:49 PM

    A terrible period in Irish history. I’m glad that the country has grown up a bit, although I suspect there is a bit to go.

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    Mute Martin Molloy
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:45 PM

    “Blood tests showed that Joanne was not the mother of the Cahirciveen Baby ”

    This is not true.
    Blood tests showed that Joanne Hayes could not have produced the Cahirciveen baby with Jeremiah Locke the married man with whom she had been having a long-standing affair, and who was the father both of her young daughter and the Abbeydorney baby.
    The baby found on the beach with stab wounds had a blood group which ruled out Hayes and Locke being its two parents. It did not exclude the possibility that Hayes was its mother with another father. But as she was pregnant at the time with Locke’s baby it would have meant that she was bearing twins conceived by different fathers, the phenomenon of superfecundation, a theoretical possibility but one so extremely rare as to be beyond the limits of reasonable doubt.
    This case started off as a tragedy. It became a farce because the Gardai were so boneheaded about their right to interrogate simple country people in any way they saw fit and if confessions were extracted from them which turned out to be untrue, well then they could just drop the charges and the victims could walk away and consider themselves lucky.
    The Gardai were not wrong to investigate the death of a baby whose body, mutilated by multiple stab wounds, was found on a beach.
    They were not wrong to start by looking for a woman who might have been pregnant but had since given birth in irregular circumstances and not reported it. This was not “Sexual profiling of Kerry” FFS. It was making use of widely available local knowledge.
    They were not being unfair or inappropriate in deciding to question Joanne Hayes when they learned that on or about the day when the baby on the beach was discovered, she had gone into hospital saying she was miscarrying a pregnancy but was found instead to be no longer pregnant. Where was her baby?
    They could be forgiven for having their suspicions strengthened when Joanne Hayes and her family lied repeatedly during interrogation, saying she had not given birth to a baby, and that she had not even been pregnant. The cops KNEW this wasn’t true.
    Somehow, and the Tribunal didn’t find out how although it was the main purpose for which it was established, Hayes and several members of her family signed statements relating to the killing by stabbing of a new born baby and the disposal of its body in the sea. But the baby that Joanne Hayes eventually admitted to bearing was not stabbed and it was buried on her farm.
    When the Tribunal convened the Gardai, instead of coming clean and describing the real conduct of the investigation, fought bitterly and tried to maintain that the confessions had been fairly extracted and were true. To that end they had to come up with a load of farcical possible explanations, including the superfecundation theory and, even more bizarrely, the theory of the Azores Baby which was the twin of the Abbeydorney baby, conceived by Hayes through Locke, which had suffered identical stab wounds to the Caherciveen baby, was wrapped in Goulding Fertilizer bags, similar to those found on the beach beside that baby, and had been thrown into the sea by Hayes’ brothers, as the family’s confessions had detailed, but instead of being washed up on a Kerry beach it was instead bobbing along on the ocean waves in the direction of the Azores.
    And the cops wondered why they were a laughing stock!

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    Mute Paul Murphy
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:51 PM

    Fascinating stuff,a gain I was only a youngfella and it wasn’t discussed at home, only in reading this have I found out what the ins and outs of the whole thing was. Probably long forgotten by most

    7
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