21. Sister’s Testimony
I
Seven days later, on Wednesday 6 February, Bridie Fuller was adjudged fit, and the tribunal returned to the hospital. Before it did so, however, Michael Hayes told it that Joanne Hayes gave birth, not in the field, but in her bedroom.
Michael Hayes is educationally subnormal.
He had spent two days in the witness box saying that he had not known Joanne was pregnant. In the closing minutes of his testimony, he was questioned by James Duggan, junior counsel on the judge’s legal team.
Did he know what an oath was? No.
Mr Duggan read it out to him.
Had it been explained to him in primary school? No.
Had he not been told that he was calling Almighty God down to stand beside him? No.
Unable to rely totally on God’s help, the lawyer invoked the name of Mike’s beloved sister. Kathleen, ‘a very truthful person, she doesn’t tell lies’, had said under oath that in her opinion all the family had known, before Mike found the baby in the field, that Joanne had given birth.
‘Where was that child born? In what room?’ the lawyer ran the two questions together in natural sequence. ‘In the top room. Above my room,’ the youth responded. In Joanne’s room. Naturally.
Had Mike been there? No.
Had Kathleen been there? No.
Had Bridie been there? No.
The careful lawyer did not ask if Joanne herself had been there.
‘Did Joanne give birth on her own?’ Yes.
Who had told Mike about this and when? ‘I think it was Kathleen, going down the field, going down the field where Joanne told her the baby was.’
Was it then that Kathleen told him that Joanne had given birth in the room? ‘No, I did not hear her say that at all.’
After the court then, before going down the field, the lawyer cajoled, Kathleen ‘at that stage told you Joanne had given birth to the child in the room. Is that right?’ Yes, said Mike simply.
Mike, said the judge, had placed the birth in the room ‘only after he had been reminded in the most specific terms of the meaning and solemnity of the oath’.
That evening the Hayes family were asked by their lawyers if they would agree to have Mike examined by a psychiatrist and the results read out in court. In the absence of any formal certification, newspapers were bound to report Michael, and the tribunal was bound to regard him as being of adult intelligence. It was rather like closing the stable door after the horse had bolted.
There was no time to arrange for a psychiatrist to see Bridie. The very next morning physician Robert McEneaney indicated privately that Bridie Fuller was sufficiently recovered to testify. The judge announced that no members of the public would be allowed into the hospital and he restricted access to four journalists.
Unlike the previous occasion, the tribunal did not sit in a distant annexe. The precaution was taken of keeping Bridie in the main building, in a room only seconds away from life-saving machines. A nurse brought in Bridie Fuller in a wheelchair and stayed by her side.
Dermot McCarthy now saw and heard her for the first time. He had no more idea than anyone else what she was going to say. Patrick Mann had instructed him, on the way to the hospital, that Bridie would receive key words, like a machine. Whatever was punched in would come out. Sister Aquinas offered the same opinion of Bridie’s mental state. ‘She had made this statement [to the guards] and I see it as a kind of record inside her mind, probably troubling her, and that having made the statement she just held on to it.’
Mr Justice Lynch opened proceedings by telling Bridie that the government had asked him to investigate the birth of Joanne’s baby. The government had asked him to investigate an awful lot more than that, but presumably he wanted to keep things simple. ‘You don’t worry. You do the best you can. Nobody will be hard on you or rude to you.’ The language was reminiscent of a parent talking to a child.
He cautioned the lawyers to ‘adopt a chatty pose’. Anthony Kennedy, normally wont to ask witnesses to ‘stop acting the gom’, chatted Bridie up a storm. ‘I will start by telling you,’ he said, ‘something very nice that was said about you yesterday.’ He was sure, he said, that Bridie Fuller would be delighted to know that a certain person had told ‘the judge and everybody else what a grand nurse you were.’ This person had even ‘said out loud that you were a first-rate nurse . . . I am sure that pleases you?’ Mr Kennedy, the judge told the old woman, ‘is a very nice man’.
The judge’s senior counsel Michael Moriarty got right down to business.
‘What we heard from your nephew, Michael Hayes, is that a birth took place in Joanne’s room in the farmhouse in Abbeydorney,’ he said. He did not say that they had also heard from Joanne, Mary, Kathleen and Ned Hayes that the birth took place in the field. Mr Moriarty kept things simple.
‘Yes,’ said Bridie.
‘Could you tell us what you remember about that birth taking place on that night?’
‘I remember,’ said Bridie, ‘she was pregnant and she delivered herself that night.’
‘We heard yesterday from Mike,’ Mr Moriarty persisted, ‘that in fact the child was born in her bedroom on the farm. Would that be right?’
‘Yes,’ agreed Bridie.
‘It was in her bedroom,’ Mr Moriarty said. He had now punched that home three out of four times and Bridie Fuller had merely agreed with what was put to her.
During her two sessions of testimony, lasting one and a half hours each, on that Wednesday and the following Friday, Bridie Fuller agreed with whatever version was presented to her by individual lawyers, each version being different.
The following exchanges took place on the cutting of the umbilical cord:
Moriarty: Were you able to do anything yourself in relation to the umbilical cord?
BF: No.
Seconds later it was discussed again.
Moriarty: What way did you help? Did you cut it?
BF: Just cut it, got a scissors.
McCarthy: Did they [the guards] suggest to you that you cut the cord?
BF: Yes.
McCarthy: Did they suggest that to you?
BF: No, I said it myself.
She had broken the waters, she did not break the waters, yes she did break the waters. She had washed the baby, she did not wash the baby, she had washed every orifice in the baby’s body. She had been in the room only once, no twice, no three times, definitely only four times, definitely only five times, she made a last visit on the sixth occasion, no she had definitely paid a last visit on the seventh occasion. The longer the lawyers stayed in Bridie’s room, the longer Bridie stayed in Joanne’s room. The longer she stayed there, the more she became confused.
She even agreed with Martin Kennedy’s theory about twins. ‘Is it possible that Joanne had a baby that night about half-eleven or twelve o’clock, while you were asleep in your bed?’
BF: How?
MK: . . . twins.
BF: . . . twins?
MK: . . . twins.
BF: She might have.
A major influence on the public understanding that Bridie Fuller’s memory on essential details was accurate was her statement that she cut the cord long on the Tralee baby. Since the cord was, in fact, an unusually long one, this detail was perceived to be too much of a coincidence to be other than factual.
Bridie Fuller never said that she cut the cord long.
She was told that she did.
She was told by her own lawyer, and then by the judge, in the following verbatim exchange.
McCarthy: You haven’t been a maternity nurse but the baby’s body showed something over a foot of umbilical cord attached to the body?
Justice Lynch: No, I think it was about six inches.
McCarthy: Thirty-six centimetres.
Justice Lynch: Not thirty-six inches.
McCarthy: A very long length of umbilical cord, thirty-six centimetres, which is over a foot?
BF: Yes.
McCarthy: When you cut
the cord, you left a great deal of umbilical cord on the body?
BF: Yes.
McCarthy then moved on to another topic. The judge interrupted him after a few moments to address Bridie Fuller directly: ‘It is correct to say it was fourteen and a half inches, or thirty-six centimetres. I was momentarily confused that it was six to eight inches that Dr Harbison said you cut it. Sorry for interrupting. It seemed to be confusing in the background.’
Since Dr Harbison had never stated that Bridie cut anything, the police lawyers attempted to sort out the judge’s continuing confusion. Their case depended on the Cahirciveen ‘twin’ being born in Joanne’s room and the Cahirciveen baby’s cord had been sheared off at the navel. Bridie was questioned further.
Martin Kennedy: I don’t understand about these things. Was it because the baby was weak that you cut the cord long? What has that got to do with it?
BF: I don’t know, but the baby was weak.
MK: What effect would it have? Was it easier on the baby to cut the cord long?
BF: It was.
MK: Why?
BF: I don’t know why.
Anthony Kennedy: Would I be right in thinking that maybe you would cut it in the normal sort of way somewhere near the body?
BF: Really, he was so very chesty and everything that is probably why I had it longer than usual.
AK: Would I be right in thinking that apart from cutting it, you didn’t pay much attention as to where you cut it?
BF: Yes.
AK: I am wondering whether you can think again about the question of the old cord . . . the first knot you would make would be as near to the baby as you could?
BF: Yes.
Judge: She said in her own words the child was chesty and that is why I cut the cord long. She is not to be trapped into saying yes or no . . . The evidence impresses me . . .
The judge did not intervene when Bridie Fuller answered yes and no to his own senior counsel.
Mr Moriarty to Ms Fuller: Can you tell us how much assistance you were able to give . . . was there any question of breaking the waters?
BF: No.
Moriarty: You are saying you didn’t break the waters?
BF: No.
Mr Moriarty later secured the statement which Bridie Fuller had made to the police and he quoted an extract to her.
Moriarty: ‘. . . Joanne was at an advanced stage. We went up to see her and I helped break her waters.’ Did you say that?
BF: That is right.
Moriarty: The bit that you mentioned about breaking the waters, can you remember now whether or not you did break the waters or not?
BF: Yes.
Moriarty: Whereas two days ago I think you said you may not have helped to break the waters?
BF: Yes.
Moriarty: Can you remember whether you did or not?
BF: I remember now.
Moriarty: You remember what about the waters?
BF: Yes.
Moriarty: That you did help in breaking them?
BF: Yes.
Martin Kennedy: Had the waters burst when you first saw Joanne?
BF: They had, I suppose.
The sick old woman in the wheelchair was even more contradictory on the washing of the baby.
McCarthy: You didn’t wash the baby?
BF: No.
McCarthy: So far as you are concerned nobody washed the baby?
BF: No.
Anthony Kennedy: As a nurse yourself . . . and a great nurse, you would be very anxious to have everything as clean as possible?
BF: Yes.
AK: Would I be right in thinking that you would clean off as much as you could?
BF: Yes.
AK: And Kathleen gave you all the water you wanted?
BF: Yes.
AK: So that you would clean its face and its body and every bit of it you could get at?
BF: Yes.
AK: And then get at some of the awkward places like under its armpits, to give it a bit of a wipe down?
BF: Yes.
AK: You would clean its eyes to see. We know a child can’t see but you would give it a chance to open its eyes?
BF: Yes.
AK: And it is a good idea to try and get it out of the ears?
BF: Yes.
AK: Do you remember doing that, cleaning it up?
BF: I do.
AK: It would be important to clean it up down near its genitals?
BF: Yes.
AK: Did you give it a good sort of rub down and wiped and washed it in all these places?
BF: I did.
AK: You made it as spick and span as you could?
BF: The child was very chesty and I think I cleaned it up all right.
McCarthy: Was there any reason why it wasn’t washed?
BF: Because it was very chesty.
Evidence had already been given to the tribunal that the body of Joanne Hayes’s baby had not been washed after the birth. Bridie Fuller had the following to say about whether or not Joanne Hayes was pregnant at all.
Moriarty: Can you say how long before she had the baby that you would have suspected that she was pregnant?
BF: I did not suspect really.
Moriarty: From the way she looked did she seem to be getting bigger?
BF: She did, really.
Moriarty: Can you say how long before the birth that would have been?
BF: About a month before it.
Moriarty: The evidence will be, if it refreshes your memory . . . that the first few detectives who spoke to you asked you about Joanne being pregnant. Do you remember?
BF: Yes.
Moriarty: What did you state to them early on in the day, do you remember?
BF: I can’t remember.
Moriarty: Again the evidence will be that early on in the day when the detectives asked you about Joanne being pregnant you said, first of all, you didn’t know she was pregnant.
BF: I did not know she was pregnant.
Moriarty: From the evidence you gave us two days ago it seems that you would have known from being present in the house. Is that right?
BF: Yes.
Moriarty: Can you say why it was you maybe didn’t tell the full story of things first of all?
BF: Well, I thought she wasn’t pregnant.
Moriarty: But you told us two days ago that you had been in the house when the various things you describe took place?
BF: Yes.
Moriarty: What I’m asking you is maybe why the first time the guards asked you some questions did you say she wasn’t pregnant?
BF: I thought she wasn’t pregnant.
Judge: She is, I think, drawing a distinction between that night and earlier on. Some time before she did not know she was pregnant.
The split-second distinction between knowing and not knowing would have done credit to a Jesuit, and Mr Moriarty accepted it.
Moriarty: Yes, in fact the position is you didn’t know at an early stage she was pregnant?
BF: Yes.
AK: I know nothing about when a baby is born, being a man. You, a nurse, would know all about it maybe?
BF: I wouldn’t because I did not do maternity.
After hearing Bridie Fuller the lawyers returned to court where counsel for the judge, Mr Duggan, said: ‘She was very lucid. She was very relaxed and was perfectly clear about what she was saying. Not alone that but the doctor gave absolute clearance for her.’ Counsel for the Attorney General, Mr O’Higgins, said: ‘We know she is not ga-ga and we know she is in the full use of her reason because the doctors told us and we could see it with our own eyes . . . the judge heard her and said she was very helpful.’
The judge’s senior counsel, Mr Moriarty, said that her evidence showed ‘apparent clarity in many respects’.
Bridie’s sister greeted these sentiments with the exasperated snort that Bridie hadn’t ‘got her wits about her at all’ and had been mentally disabled for years. The incensed judge immediately ordered doctors into court to con
tradict what Mr Moriarty described as ‘certain remarks made by Miss Joan Fuller and reported widely in the press and television in relation to the capacity of Miss Bridie Fuller to give evidence’.
Dr McEneaney was asked if Bridie was ‘a fully competent witness?’ She was, he said.
The judge was not satisfied, and he took up questioning himself. ‘We had a lady down here yesterday from Newbridge and she said her sister Bridie, whom she had not seen since Christmas, was getting more feeble-minded every day and is not responsible for what she is saying. Is there any basis in truth for that?’
‘Not that I am aware of,’ said Dr McEneaney.
Dr Chute was then called. On 3 January he had told the Hayes solicitor that he was not qualified to say whether Bridie Fuller was fit or not. On 30 January, when Dr McEneaney declared the woman unfit, Mr Anthony Kennedy alleged that Dr Chute had refused to come to a similar finding. On 2 February Dr Chute had his solicitors write to the papers to contradict Mr Kennedy, stating that ‘our client has never been and is not now Ms Fuller’s medical attendant . . . the question of his refusal to certify that Ms Fuller was unfit to give evidence does not arise’. On 7 February, the day after Dr McEneaney revised his findings to declare Bridie Fuller capable, Dr Chute came into court to revise his.
He had formed the opinion on 3 January, he told the court, that Bridie Fuller was ‘fit to attend’, adding, ‘I hadn’t medically examined her.’
Undeterred by this oversight, Justice Lynch said, ‘Your opinion is she was fit to attend at that time on 3 January?’
Dr Chute replied, ‘Yes.’
Such revision, by such experts, was to plague the tribunal. Months later psychiatrist John Fennelly, on instructions from the tribunal, examined Bridie Fuller and pronounced her senile, ‘deteriorated and deteriorating still’. He regarded her memory as ‘probably more inaccurate than unreliable’.
Bridie Fuller’s testimony, then as now, haunted the public imagination. What had she seen through that long night by the range, as Joanne came through the kitchen in a blood-stained nightie?
II
Mary Hayes also revised her testimony. The revolving-door method of the tribunal meant that she spoke, Bridie spoke, Joan Fuller spoke, then she spoke, then Bridie spoke, then she spoke. Mary Hayes told the tribunal at first that she had not been present at all on the night of 12/13 April. Kathleen, Ned and Mike were mistaken in thinking they had said goodnight to her in the kitchen. She had watched television with Joanne and gone to bed early. She had slept from ten o’clock right through to ten the following morning.
A Woman to Blame Page 15