Gardaí deserve praise

BY any yardstick, the performance of gardaí in the search for the supposedly abandoned Ballymun baby deserves to be applauded.

The incident has since transpired to be either a callous hoax or the product of a disturbed mind. But because a criminal investigation is still in progress, it is entirely appropriate that the identity of the woman at the centre of the emergency should not be disclosed.

The public has yet to learn if repeated calls both to helplines and the gardaí were malice or the actions of a woman with psychological problems. Significantly, however, it is known that the perpetrator, who was traced to a location in the Midlands, is suspected of having done something similar in the past.