Big Read: How exhumation of Baby John may have solved decades-old ‘Kerry Babies’ mystery

Nearly 40 years of silence but gardaí believe they have a DNA breakthrough

The infant’s grave in Holy Cross cemetery in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, after the exhumation and reinterral.

Catherine Fegan

It was Saturday, April 14, 1984. Local farmer Jack Griffin was running along White Strand Beach in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, when he saw what looked like a doll lying on the rocks. He looked closer and realised it wasn’t a doll. It was the lifeless body of a naked baby boy. An empty fertiliser bag was nearby.