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The Hayes family at the Tribunal in 1985 RollingNews.ie

Kerry Babies: An unsolved murder 34 years after Ireland put 'womanhood on trial'

As we wait on a significant announcement from gardaí, we look back at the Kerry Babies case which rocked the country to its core – and became, perhaps, a catalyst for change.

DNA TESTING WAS not available in 1980s Ireland.

A scientific analysis we now expect in every garda investigation could not be used to rule out suspects or create familial links in any serious crime.

Its absence in Kerry in 1984 left a nation forever changed.

The tragic news of a newborn baby found dead and abandoned on the White Strand near Cahersiveen was reported on RTÉ on 14 April 1984.

People across the country were understandably shocked but nothing could prepare the population for the social upheaval to come over the next 20 months when they would, collectively, have to examine Ireland’s treatment of women, attitudes to sex and the function and capabilities of An Garda Síochána.

There would be a criminal investigation and a Tribunal. The establishment was shocked to see not only many in the media but ordinary people – from Kerry locals to Dublin activists – turn against it over the handling of the case. They sided with 25-year-old Joanne Hayes who had been dragged into a murder inquiry, 76 kilometres from where she lived, to have her sex and personal life scrutinised.

What was her place in it?

A new DNA profile, details of which are due to be made public later today, will likely rule out any connection between Hayes and the Cahersiveen Baby, baptised and named John. It is a test that she and her solicitor have requested for a number of years.

PastedImage-80222 Joanne Hayes RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

In April 1984 she lived with her family in Abbeydorney, about 90 minutes’ drive from the beach where John was discovered with multiple stab wounds.

Despite the distance, gardaí investigating the infanticide arrived at her door. Their justification for the visit was knowing that she had become pregnant by a married man, Jeremiah Locke. It was known in the area that the pair worked together, had been in a relationship and that he had fathered her daughter, who was now one-and-a-half years old and living on the farm with her.

One of the lines of inquiry detectives had taken in the case was to look for women who could possibly have given birth to ‘unwanted’ children.

Hayes had already delivered her child – a baby boy who had died during or after his birth on the farm. She told gardaí this, explaining that after the labour she panicked and returned to the farmhouse. A day later, 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 told gardaí that the body remained on the farm. They didn’t believe her and did not ask her to bring them to the burial site.

Confessions

Inexplicably over the next few days, ‘confessions’ about the Cahirsiveen baby were elicited from members of the Hayes family.

During lengthy interrogations, they said that Joanne gave birth in the house and killed the baby by stabbing it with a carving knife and beating its head with a bath brush. They also said that they helped dispose 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.

The gardaí had not found Joanne’s baby.

A day later, a member of the Hayes family brought gardaí to the farm where they found Joanne’s baby buried.

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.

Tests

Although there were no DNA tests performed, gardaí were able to test the blood type of both infants.

It was clear that Hayes and Locke were not the parents of the Cahirsiveen Baby, who was blood group A and therefore one of his parents had to be of the same group. They were both blood group O, as was their child found in Abbeydorney. The definitive answer, however, did not stop theories forming that Hayes could have mothered the babies as twins to different fathers.

Gardaí put forward the theory that Hayes must have had sex with two different men – one with a blood group A – over 48 hours and become pregnant by both.

This extremely unlikely occurrence is known as superfecundation and, according to Nell McCaffrey’s book A Woman to Blame, is “so rare that it is a footnote in medical journals”.

With this narrative, gardaí pressed ahead with charges and began to prepare a book of evidence against the Hayes family.

They were stopped in their tracks by the Director of Public Prosecutions who dropped ‘this amazing case’. Éamonn Barnes had based his decision on the evidence available.

Media coverage

Hayes was soon able to tell her side of the story, explaining to RTE’s Today Tonight (and quoted in Eamonn Sweeney’s book about the 1970s and 1980s Down Down Deeper and Down) that she signed the gardaí’s written statement under duress “because they told me they were going to make Mother charged with murder as well and put my little girl in an orphanage, and going to sell the farm as well”.

The public were astonished as media coverage of the garda handling of the investigation ramped up and the Hayes family complained about the alleged ill-treatment which they said included assault, harassment and oppressive conduct.

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

There were always going to be problems with that plan, however.

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.

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.

A government memo from then Justice Minister Michael Noonan’s department, released in 2015 under the 30-year-rule, summarises the main gist 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 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”.

Noonan wanted a tribunal of inquiry into the garda handling of the case. Calling for his government to back him, he 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.

PastedImage-55797 Eamonn Farrell / Photocall Ireland Eamonn Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

Over 82 days in 1985, Justice Kevin Lynch heard evidence from Joanne and other members of the Hayes family, Jeremiah Locke, investigating gardaí and others.

As the tribunal dragged on, public opinion was firmly with Joanne Hayes. 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”. Justice Lynch allowed the lines of questioning as counsel for gardaí argued that if he could “show that Hayes had a previous sexual history… and that during her relationship she was also having sex with others; and if any one of these others had blood group A, then it will be… not only possible but probably that twins born of that union could have had blood group A in one, O in the other”.

PastedImage-16153 Detective Sergeant Gerard O'Carroll during the Kerry Babies Tribunal. RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

To the dismay of gardaí and their counsel however, the superfecundation expert called to give evidence said that the possibility of this having occurred was so minuscule that it could be ruled out.

The judge 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.

In his report, he did not make it clear how four people, interviewed in separate rooms, came up with eerily similar ‘confessions’ to incriminate themselves in a crime in which they played no part.

The tribunal also found that Joanne was the mother of just the Abbeydorney baby and, despite forensic evidence to the contrary, 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.

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.

(And Justice Lynch had made a point of asking where the flowers were for Mr Locke’s wife during his summary of the proceedings.)

Neighbours had travelled to Tralee to picket the inquiry’s 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.

Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald’s papers at the time show how much correspondence he and Michael Noonan received in relation to the cases.

PastedImage-52224 A letter to Fitzgerald from the wives of the gardaí involved in the investigation. They were unhappy about their husbands being moved from their previous duties within the force.

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”.

Women were starting to come together to protest against how they were viewed in society, and particularly against the lens placed on young unmarried women.

The tragic case of Ann Lovett, Eileen Flynn’s fight and the wrong done to Joanne Hayes were seen not as instances of individual women in trouble but, as McCaffrey wrote, womanhood itself on trial.

Joanne Hayes still lives in Kerry and refuses all requests for interviews about the time. Her long-time solicitor Pat Mann has always said that forensic testing of Baby John (the Cahirciveen Baby) would be welcomed by his client.

At 2pm today, she will finally see the results broadcast across the same channels which carried the most intimate, and heartbreaking, details of her life as a young woman in Ireland.

Gardaí will hold a press conference in Cahirsiveen this afternoon. Follow TheJournal.ie’s Cianan Brennan on Twitter, @ciananbrennan and @thejournal_ie, for updates. 

Kerry Babies: DNA breakthrough comes two years after family appeal to have samples tested

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    Mute Ken Collins
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    Apr 15th 2015, 7:38 AM

    Their defence of this slaughter is actually a joke in this day and age… We have to kill them to see what they eat and how old they are. Laughable from one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world.

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    Mute OneTrueVoice
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    Apr 15th 2015, 8:02 PM

    Hindus are still upset that we’re still experimenting on cattle to figure out how tasty the perfect steak is.

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    Mute Mursh
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    Apr 15th 2015, 7:51 AM

    They’ve established that the leading cause of death is a harpoon to the head.

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    Mute Ben Redline
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    Apr 15th 2015, 7:58 AM

    Japan have been whale hunting since the early 1900′s how much research do these fcukers need? and don’t get me started on the Dolphin hunts absolutely disgusting.

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    Mute Sean Barry
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    Apr 15th 2015, 10:33 AM

    you should just mind your own business. Let other countries manage their own affairs and traditions

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    Mute cholly appleseed
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    Apr 15th 2015, 12:33 PM

    Except Sean, Japan has no claim to the whales of the Antarctic.

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    Mute james r
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    Apr 15th 2015, 7:36 AM

    horrific .. should be banned

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    Apr 15th 2015, 9:28 AM

    It is banned, at least for commercial purposes. The Japanese claiming that this is for “research” is obviously an attempt to circumvent the ban on whale hunting.

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    Mute John Ryan
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    Apr 15th 2015, 6:01 PM

    The odd thing is that few in Japan actually eat it anymore. Its a bit like French people not really eating frogs legs and snails. In Japan whale meat is not very popular .

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Apr 15th 2015, 7:39 AM

    Who are these idiots trying to convince? Certainly not the world! Murderers all.

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    Mute john mccarthy
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    Apr 15th 2015, 7:55 AM

    The sea shepherd and captain Paul Watson will be back in action soon. I am always very humbled to know that these people are so dedicated to the conservation of Whales and the lengths they will selflessly go to, to protect them.

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    Mute Justin Credible
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    Apr 15th 2015, 8:37 AM

    Whale Wars is one of the worst tv shows ever made, the whole logic behind the show is flawed. Its all about TV ratings, and not too much about saving whales. They have put peoples lives at risk, and spent a lot of money to save tens of whales, when that money could be spent on a legal team to change the laws on “research killings”, which would save thousands of whales over the decades. The Faroe Island episode was the worst one, as their whaling is actually sustainable, yet it made for good TV for people that believe everything they are fed.

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    Mute brian boru
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    Apr 15th 2015, 8:39 AM

    Faroe Islands whaling is an aberration and the fact that the eu allows it continue is a shocking reality.

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    Mute Live Long
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    Apr 15th 2015, 8:41 AM

    Just because its sustainable doesn’t make it right, fox hunting is sustainable but that’s not an excuse for this savagery. Have you ever seen the whale hunts on the Faroe Islands? Stuff of nightmares.

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    Mute Justin Credible
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    Apr 15th 2015, 8:56 AM

    Why is it an aberration, when its sustainable, and its one of their main sources of food? In the grand scale of things, its very small scale whaling, and is sustainable. The episode of whale wars in the Faroe Island made me agree with the Faroese people over Paul Watson. Yes I have seen the whale hunts on the Faroe Islands, I honestly wouldn’t comment on them unless I had. It not for someone with a weak stomach, however the same can be said about any meat factory. have a look at how chickens are killed!
    You can’t even begin to compare fox hunting to whaling. In modern hunts, its more about a day out with the horses and dogs, its actually rare that any foxes are killed, as they are nocturnal.

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    Mute Live Long
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    Apr 15th 2015, 9:07 AM

    Are you comparing the killing of mindless chickens to the killing of sentient beings like whales. Chickens get it easy compared to the whales who usually drown in their own blood. The islanders don’t need whale meat, they eat it as a delicacy, its just an out dated tradition that fulfils a bloodlust, that has no place in the modern world.

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    Mute Shane Carroll
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    Apr 15th 2015, 9:30 AM

    Hi Justin.
    You say “its actually rare that any foxes are killed, as they are nocturnal.” I regularly see foxes during the day on my walks in the countryside. Why would they be chasing them during the day if they thought there were none about?!!
    “its more about a day out with the horses and dogs,” Yes but with the intention of catching a fox and ripping it to shreds with packs of dogs. A questionable day out pursuit in our modern times.
    Are you not aware of the studies which link animal abuse and manic behavior??
    This is not hunting for food, it is killing for pleasure and i believe it should be banned along with any other activity which involves killing animals for pleasure.

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    Mute Justin Credible
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    Apr 15th 2015, 9:44 AM

    Chickens are also sentient. As are pigs, of which there are over 1.5 million in Ireland, their sole purpose is to be slaughtered and eaten. My points about Paul Watson, and National Geographic are valid though, the Faroese people kill a small number of non endangered whales every year. However, as they are slaughtered in a way that looks horrific to most people, it shocks people into supporting the Sea Shepherd, and males them look like heroes. However, while National Geographic and Paul Watson are spending money making a show against sustainable whaling, the Japanese are still killing endangered whales. If they really cared about saving those whales that need the most help, then that money would be spend on changing the laws, or banning meat from endangered whales in Japan. However, that wouldn’t make for an exciting tv show. Its not just whales that need help, the Japanese are killing thousands of sharks every year too for shark fin soup. Sharks are taken on board a boat, fins cut off, then thrown back alive with no fins to die. But as sharks are seen as “killers”, and not friendly like whales, most people don’t care, so it would be hard to fund a “shark wars” tv show. Whale wars in a nut shell, is and incredibly scripted piece of American garbage, giving the “facts” they want to give, while putting peoples lives at risk.

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    Mute Justin Credible
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    Apr 15th 2015, 9:58 AM

    Shane Carroll, for the record, I don’t go on hunts, I have never even been on a horse! I do come from a farming background though. Yes, you will see foxes during the day time in the summer, but not that many, as they are nocturnal. To see them in the middle of the day is very rare, its usually early in the morning, or late in the evening when the nights are short in the summer. I don’t agree with fox hunting with dogs, but in most hunts, they its rare for them to even see a fox. As I mentioned, the modern hunt is a social event, people don’t go out with the idea of trying to kill as many foxes as they can. If you have ever seen a hunt, take note of the condition of the horses and hounds, they don’t really look like they have been abused. Also, how many people that have pets, will set rat/mouse traps, or poison? Foxes are not killed for pleasure either, its the same as killing mice/rats. If a fox gets into a chicken coop, thats the end of the chickens, also, in spring a new born lamb is a very easy target

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    Mute Shane Carroll
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    Apr 15th 2015, 10:17 AM

    Fair enough that is a good point in relation to farmers and i understand foxes can pose a threat to their livelyhoods.
    However their are other preventative measures and i don’t think that hunting a fox with hounds is a solution to this issue.
    A loose pack of hounds has the potential to do much more damage than a fox ever could!
    Also from the people i know involved in fox hunts, the majority of them have nothing to do with chicken or sheep farming.

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    Mute Justin Credible
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    Apr 15th 2015, 10:40 AM

    I agree, and the horses can do a lot of damage to land in too! A lot of farmers don’t want hunts on their land, for the reasons you mentioned. There is also the issue of liability if somebody gets injured on your land. You are right, most people on the hunts are mainly into horses, a lot wont have chickens or sheep. to be honest, I cant remember the last time I heard of a local hunt actually killing a fox. 30-40 years ago, it would have been different, as it was the main form of keeping the foxes numbers down. Lamping at night with a riffle accounts for the vast majority of foxes being killed now.

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    Mute Lamb
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    Apr 15th 2015, 11:11 AM

    I thought they rammed Sea Shepherd and broke it in 2? Was there another one?

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    Mute Jon Burkin
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    Apr 15th 2015, 7:51 AM

    What’s wrong with us humans!

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Apr 15th 2015, 12:29 PM

    Selfish with the thinking and acting of a virus or cancer, greed, greed and more greed?

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    Mute justanothertaxpayer
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    Apr 15th 2015, 8:34 AM

    1. Exactly how often do whales change their diet that 300+ of them need to be gutted every year for inspection?

    2. Just ban the sale of the whale meat from research. Just force the destruction of the carcass. They will stop spending money chasin, killing and processing them if there is no money in it

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    Mute mcos
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    Apr 15th 2015, 7:59 AM

    Scientific research me arse!!!

    This is a worthwhile, but tough watch -

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P08ay4y-gE0

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    Mute Sean J. Troy
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    Apr 15th 2015, 8:15 AM

    Japan has bought a lot of IWC votes with foreign aid packages. It’s very difficult to eradicate this problem by using official channels. But it needs to stop.

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    Mute Live Long
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    Apr 15th 2015, 8:43 AM

    Its a total shambles, the Japanese cant even give the whale meat away in their own country, they make schools serve it for lunch just to keep a few whalers in a job.

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    Mute Siju Jose
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    Apr 15th 2015, 7:39 AM

    Hum

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    Mute r keane
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    Apr 15th 2015, 9:13 AM

    Good people, bad tastes – only way to really stop it is to embarrass them publicly

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    Mute Duchess d'Punk
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    Apr 15th 2015, 8:25 AM

    awful!

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Apr 15th 2015, 12:28 PM

    I thought it was because whale meat was a delicacy and the fat cats there love eating it, they eat it until all the whales became extinct?

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    Mute John Cross
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    Apr 15th 2015, 5:40 PM

    Easiest way to stop whaling is to run a campaign to stop buying Japanese products if they start whaling again

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