Are criminal proceedings the only route to truth for Baby John?

The grave of baby John in Holy Cross Cemetery, Cahersiveen, Co Kerry. Picture: Dan Linehan

For my doctoral research on concealed pregnancy in contemporary Ireland, I analysed ten years of reports of findings of bodies of newborn infants or live babies in Ireland between 1995 and 2005.

In that time, ten babies’ bodies and four live newborns were found. As UCD Sociologist Tom Inglis wrote in his 2003 book Truth, Power and Lies: Irish Society and the Case of the Kerry Babies, a growing sympathy and understanding emerged towards women concealing pregnancy and instances of infanticide in the decades following the more punitive 1980s.