"On 14 April 1984 a woman’s identity was shattered to pieces. 33 years later we are still trying to piece it back together."

More than thirty years ago two tragedies set off a chain of events leading to the Kerry babies case, gripping national attention and putting the spotlight on the place of women in Irish society, sexual mores and the conduct of An Garda Síochána.

Longford theatre-maker Luke Casserly is the director of a show which will be part of the Dublin Fringe festival this month called Efficacy 84. It aims to ask questions about the limitations of art and how we can, as a society, begin to engage with an event, and an Ireland, that seems so far away from us today, in the context of the Kerry babies story.

Additional reading:

www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/the-case-of-the-kerry-babies-1.1759242

www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/state-papers-garda%C3%AD-grossly-negligent-in-kerry-babies-inquiry-1.2479669

www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/harrowing-treatment-of-joanne-hayes-at-kerry-babies-tribunal-condemned-1.2479657