It focused almost exclusively on the infamous scandal of the Kerry Babies. In April 1984 the body of a three day old boy was found washed up on a beach. It had been stabbed to death. Immediately, the Gardai began an investigation into recently pregnant women in the vicinity and homed in on the Hayes family.
Doubtless, An Garda had a rough time of it at the hands of the IRA. It lost members, often gunned down as they went about their business unarmed. Martin McGuinness, a former IRA chief of staff, while an army council member publicly specified the conditions under which the IRA could kill members of An Garda.
Magill captured the heady atmosphere of the time:
The cops involved had a long association with Heavy Gang activity, and light touch was alien to them. Joanne Hayes had been pregnant and when asked where her baby was she told the detectives that it had died shortly after birth. So, panicked, she had deposited its remains on the family farm.
Rather than search the location, the Gardai coerced a confession out of her so that she became the mother of the stabbed baby. Not only was she the child’s mum, she was also its killer according to her forcibly extracted statement. When her own baby was discovered a day later, exactly where she said it was, the Garda gang insisted she was indeed the mother of the stabbed baby and that she had been pregnant with twins to two separate fathers, the risible "heteropaternal superfecundation" theory. When forensic evidence rubbished that, showing that neither Ms Hayes nor the father of the baby found on her farm had any connection to the baby on the beach, the Gardai then claimed there was a third baby which had also been dumped in the sea. This third baby that in reality had never been born was supposedly the child of Joanne Hayes, which she had murdered.
A black comedy writer could not make it up. It was all spurious Garda garbage, which they felt they could get away with in a society that was prone to unhinged beliefs such as moving statues. The case against the Hayes family and Joanne was dismissed. Much as had happened with previous cases that had fallen apart when Garda evidence was subjected to logic and proper scrutiny. Prosecutors could not wait to be shot of it, so ludicrous were the Gardai claims. It had all become like a crazed scene from Flann OBrien's The Third Policeman, only this was the Third Baby.
Yet, this Kafkaesque world has never been laid to rest. It wasn’t just Heavy Gang head honcho John Courtney who propagated the myth that "there was no such thing as a 'heavy gang' in the Garda Siochana."
The force itself institutionalized the lie by promoting many of those involved. The judiciary did likewise by staying silent when Kevin Lynch was made a Supreme Court justice after he had excoriated the Hayes family and exonerated the Garda gang at his Widgery-like tribunal. He went as far as to rule that Joanne Hayes had killed her own baby despite the state pathologist being unable to establish the cause of death. In something straight out of Roland Freisler's judge's rule book he also accused the Hayes family of being barefaced liars.
Rather than search the location, the Gardai coerced a confession out of her so that she became the mother of the stabbed baby. Not only was she the child’s mum, she was also its killer according to her forcibly extracted statement. When her own baby was discovered a day later, exactly where she said it was, the Garda gang insisted she was indeed the mother of the stabbed baby and that she had been pregnant with twins to two separate fathers, the risible "heteropaternal superfecundation" theory. When forensic evidence rubbished that, showing that neither Ms Hayes nor the father of the baby found on her farm had any connection to the baby on the beach, the Gardai then claimed there was a third baby which had also been dumped in the sea. This third baby that in reality had never been born was supposedly the child of Joanne Hayes, which she had murdered.
A black comedy writer could not make it up. It was all spurious Garda garbage, which they felt they could get away with in a society that was prone to unhinged beliefs such as moving statues. The case against the Hayes family and Joanne was dismissed. Much as had happened with previous cases that had fallen apart when Garda evidence was subjected to logic and proper scrutiny. Prosecutors could not wait to be shot of it, so ludicrous were the Gardai claims. It had all become like a crazed scene from Flann OBrien's The Third Policeman, only this was the Third Baby.
Yet, this Kafkaesque world has never been laid to rest. It wasn’t just Heavy Gang head honcho John Courtney who propagated the myth that "there was no such thing as a 'heavy gang' in the Garda Siochana."
The force itself institutionalized the lie by promoting many of those involved. The judiciary did likewise by staying silent when Kevin Lynch was made a Supreme Court justice after he had excoriated the Hayes family and exonerated the Garda gang at his Widgery-like tribunal. He went as far as to rule that Joanne Hayes had killed her own baby despite the state pathologist being unable to establish the cause of death. In something straight out of Roland Freisler's judge's rule book he also accused the Hayes family of being barefaced liars.
The Irish state has perpetuated the myth that no Heavy Hang existed by failing to confront it and call it by its name.
Doubtless, An Garda had a rough time of it at the hands of the IRA. It lost members, often gunned down as they went about their business unarmed. Martin McGuinness, a former IRA chief of staff, while an army council member publicly specified the conditions under which the IRA could kill members of An Garda.
In what was an hysterical but probably genuine belief that the Southern state was under threat practices were tolerated which were themselves criminal. Police violence was just one element in this. There were also used methods of achieving results which were devious and unlawful.
Anger while not righteous was molten. To borrow from Albert Camus, police violence in such circumstances was probably as unavoidable as it was unjustifiable.
Before this society can know that it will never happen again, it has to know that it was wrong for it ever to have happened in the first place. Yet, silence from the citadels of authority and legitimacy. While the sentinels in Leinster House and An Aras avert their gaze, their watch remains compromised.
⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.
