1985 revisited: Baby’s body on beach in Kerry led to 82-day inquiry

Forty years on, our writers look back at some of the scandals and stories that made the headlines and helped shape the Ireland of today

Joanne Hayes in 1985. Picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

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.