State archives: Kerry Babies tribunal sought truth behind terrible tragedy

THE discovery of a newborn’s body on a beach and a family’s alleged confession they had killed a baby days earlier and put the body into the sea led to the Kerry Babies Tribunal.

The tribunal began sitting in Tralee on January 7, 1985.

It was inquiring into how Joanne Hayes of Abbeydorney and members of her family had confessed to killing a baby washed up on a beach near Cahirciveen.