The Joanne Hayes tapes — a young woman put on trial

Joyce Fegan outlines the timeline of events that led to the Kerry Babies tribunal, which ultimately turned into the trial of Joanne Hayes, who was crosss-examined for five days at the hearing. Below are excerpts from the proceedings.

After a bizarre convergence of totally unrelated events, a tribunal was set up in January 1985 to examine the Garda mishandling of a Kerry murder investigation. However, it turned into the trial of a young local woman, Joanne Hayes.

Outlined below, is the timeline of events that led to the tribunal-cum-trial.