Kerry Babies: A harrowing story that shocked and gripped the nation

Thirty-three years after gardaí failed to discover the killer and mother of a baby boy, the investigation is to be reactivated, writes Donal Hickey.

It was a story that gripped the country in the 1980s, a decade remembered for scandals surrounding female sexuality. And it might never have come to light had a quiet-living farmer not decided to take a leisurely run on a beach.

In the evening of April 14, 1984, Jack Griffin was jogging along White Strand, near Caherciveen, Co Kerry, when he spotted what he first thought was a doll on the sand beside a grey fertiliser bag, close to rocks.