Review: And the Rope Still Tugging at Her Feet – Gilded Balloon

First published in The Times, Tuesday August 16 2016

Two Stars

The Kerry Babies scandal of 1984, in which a woman was coerced into falsely confessing that she had murdered a newborn baby, is an important landmark in Irish legal history, highlighting the treatment of unmarried mothers. The ordeal endured by Joanne Hayes and her family, and the mystery of who killed “Baby John”, is ripe for dramatisation. The story certainly deserves better than this well-intentioned but amateurish production.