Noleen Murphy was her name. The 5 1/2lb baby born to an 11-year-old child nearly 34 years ago, the newborn who had hardly a chance to draw breath before being stabbed more than 40 times in the neck, chest and face, then dumped in a Dún Laoghaire laneway, has a name, writes Kathy Sheridan
Noleen Murphy.
The infant consigned to a communal grave in Glasnevin, with 100 others, was a little girl called Noleen Murphy. She was the daughter of Cynthia Owen - and she existed, however briefly.
In a hotel conference suite in Tallaght, Co Dublin, yesterday, after an inquest described by one of Ms Owen's legal team as being the most contentious since the Gibraltar shootings, a jury of six men and six women returned after 4½ hours to give an identity and official recognition to a long-dead child.
"The 12 agree that it is Cynthia Owen's baby," said the forewoman, in a verdict that, in effect, said that they believed at least the core of Cynthia Owen's evidence.
A short-lived cheer from the right-hand side of the room, quickly became an outpouring of raw emotion. As her friends embraced emotionally, Cynthia Owen began to weep, her wracking sobs the only sound in the room as she slowly lowered herself onto her husband's knees, his arms tightly and protectively around her as they had been all through the four harrowing days of the hearing.
Her brother, Peter jnr, and her father, Peter (79), who were present all week, were not there yesterday to see her vindication.
But Cynthia Owen's three estranged sisters, who were legally represented together with their father, were there.
After the verdict, they remained in their seats, expressionless, until Catherine rose to whisper something to their barrister.
Frances, the only sister who said she believed that Cynthia had had a baby, remained seated several rows behind Cynthia. They have had their differences too.
"I believe you've given your baby a first name?" said the Dublin county coroner, Kieran Geraghty, gently, after she had been helped back to the stand, physically supported by her husband.
"Noleen," she said, the syllables cracking on a wail of undammed grief. Dr Geraghty then formally declared that the baby found on April 4th, 1973, at Lee's Lane, Dún Laoghaire, was Noleen Murphy.
Later in a statement, Cynthia Owen criticised "the authorities who stood idly by during those terrifying years of my pre-teen and early teenage life", described as "compromised, if not an entire sham" the 1973 investigation and called on the Minister for Justice to promptly investigate how "almost every piece of contemporaneous direct evidence . . . mysteriously went missing".
Now, "at last", she said, "Dr Geraghty and the jury have formally given my daughter Noleen back her name and I can begin to live the rest of my life".