Leo Varadkar’s reaction to the Kerry Babies case and his apology to Joanne Hayes hit the right note as the leader of our country, writes Terry Prone.

Anyone alive when the 1984 Kerry Babies’ story transfixed and divided the country must be at least 33 years of age; anyone who was old enough to understand the startling events, the incredible allegations and appalling behaviour of official Ireland, resplendent in its Talibanesque moral superiority, as it unfolded must be closer to 50 if not older.

SEVERAL days after 15-year-old Ann Lovett died in hospital, just hours after giving birth to a 6½lb baby boy found dead beside a Co Longford grotto, an anonymous caller phoned the Sunday Tribune newspaper to explain what had happened on that cold and dark winter afternoon on Jan 31, 1984 outside Granard.